


Rules, règles, reglas (previously where The streets have no name)

by Draco10



Category: Glee
Genre: Angst, Cupcakes, Dom/sub, Dom/sub Undertones, Fluff, M/M, Maybe more then light Dom/Sub undertones, Multi, Sebastian Being An Asshole, sniping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:08:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 17
Words: 25,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23491444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draco10/pseuds/Draco10
Summary: Hunter is not dating Sebastian. But when the flirtiest boy at Dalton is your roomate, things go down. Hunter really just wants to protect Sebastian. But Sebastian is keeping some big secrets, and Hunter might need to cooperate with some enemies to find the answers he wants.Just started this fic, tags will be added.Published on Wattpad here with embedded photos: https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/219685764-where-the-streets-have-no-name
Relationships: Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel, Blaine Anderson/Sebastian Smythe, Hunter Clarington/Sebastian Smythe, Kurt Hummel/Sebastian Smythe, Sebastian/Everyone and anyone imaginable (mentioned)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 60





	1. Prelude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a really rough first draft, but please read it and make suggestions in the comments! It’s a prelude, and there’s no sex yet* It’s a snapshot of how Sebastian’s relationship with Kurt and Blaine started. Set right after the Micheal episode. 
> 
> The next chapter starts 9 months later with Hunter slowly falling for Sebastian and being forced to work with Kurt to figure out Sebastian’s backstory. Sebastian’s backstory is tied to the military, so only Hunter has the knowledge to understand Sebastian’s past.
> 
> *Sorry!

[Kurt and Pirate!Blaine](https://images.app.goo.gl/ZPvWHtUEXkbF2WEg9)

“You’re texting him!” Kurt shouted looking at the green chat burbs popping up on his boyfriend’s phone. “Blaine, he attacked you! Please say this is some ill-conceived, revenge master-plan; and if so, let me help.”

“No, no, Give me my phone back.” Blaine said rolling over to Kurt and wincing as his eye patch shifted.

“No what?” Kurt said, holding Blaine’s phone out of reach.

Blaine grabbed Kurt’s arm and snatched his phone away, “No, this is not part of some ill-conceived, revenge master-plan.”

“Then why...”

“I think he needs a friend.”

“Blaine, he might have caused permanent damage. And you are so sweet and nice you can’t wrap your head around the fact that this boy is Satan incarnate and will never be capable of normal human emotions such as remorse or caring,”

“His home life seems... complicated. Like I don’t know what happened to his mom,” Kurt’s expression got softer. “and he refuses to explain his relationship to this guy Zach, who I presume is his father.”

“That doesn’t excuse his behavior,” Kurt said, decisively,

“And it’s his birthday.”

“Not our problem,”

“Kurt, he’s turning 15.”

Kurt blinked, “You mean 16.”

“No,” Blaine corrected “14 turning 15.”

“That’s impossible.” Kurt sputtered,

“He told me he was a junior, but I asked the other Warblers. He’s a Sophmore and he skipped Freshman year. Came from some preppy middle school in France and was advanced in every subject.”

Kurt rolled his eyes, any chemistry between Blaine and Sebastian suddenly became a lot less threatening, yet somehow a lot more annoying, “Ok... he’s a freakishly tall prodigy. Impressive, doesn’t make him less Satanic.” Kurt thought about Sebastian’s whispered brags at Scandels. “Oh. my. god. How is he that young? There is no way he did the type of things he said that he did.”

“I mean, Santana, Puck, Finn, Brittany, and Quinn, all became sexually active their Freshman or Sophomore year.” Blaine said, counting them off on his fingers. But Kurt was still in his own head,

“Oh, now I feel really dirty,”

Blaine looked at him, interest piqued, almost laughing “Did you have sexual fantasies about Sebastian?”

“I mean he is just so frustrating, it’s hard not to imagine... finding creative ways to shut him up.” Kurt said, turning a little red but wiggling his eyebrows. Getting embarrassed, but doing it with style.

Blaine thought for a moment, “Maybe, we should go wish him happy birthday. I mean, there is only a 2 year age gap, so none of your fantasies are illegal. And trust me, Sebastian has experienced his full sexual awakening. We are not ‘stealing his innocence’.”

“Thought we´d find you here” Blaine said, pulling a chair up to Sebastian’s table at the Lima Bean. He was studying Spanish.

He closed his text book and looked up with his signature impish grin, “Blaine, didn’t think anyone could pull off an eyepatch but damn...”

[Sebastian winking](https://images.app.goo.gl/hV8o1hzfunovPrSs7)

“Why are we talking to him again?” Kurt asked Blaine,

Sebastian turned his attention to Kurt with a small sigh, because even taking his attention off Blaine for a moment felt like such a loss, “Because I am irresistible.” Sebastian attempted to gauge Blaine’s mood. He was holding a small bag, and Sebastian assumed this little interaction would end in some lame attempt at revenge, nothing he couldn’t handle. “I am sorry about the eye Blaine, had to be done.”

“Did it?” Kurt asked,

Sebastian looked at him, dead serious “You interfered with my plan to win regionals,”

“You mean your plan to cheat regionals.” Kurt corrected,

“The rules are whatever you can get away with, Kurt. And we are going to crush- “

“Ok,” Blaine cut him off, “We brought you something,” Sebastian leaned away as Blaine reached inside the bag, just in case he revealed a poisonous animal or something equally horrible. Blaine pulled out a cupcake, with the number 15 sticking out. Sebastian stared at it for a moment.

“Have you been internet stalking me?”

“I am facebook friends with your - with Sam. Remember?” Blaine answered, “And I thought that it’s nice to have someone wish you a happy birthday, even when you don’t want anyone to know your age.”

Blaine handed him the cupcake and Sebastian half-smiled, “Honestly, you are so hot I would consider eating it..” Sebastian carefully placed thhe cupcake in front of him. “But I know this is part of some ill-conceived revenge plan.”

“There’s nothing in it.” Blaine said, “I promise,”

“Nice attempt, but I’m not as naive as your public school buddies.”

[Cupcake!](https://images.app.goo.gl/KagEsbfQ9snKCWxw6)

Blaine glanced at Kurt, for permission. Kurt looked less annoyed then he normally did so Blaine surged ahead, “I can prove it,” Blaine picked up the cupcake and took a small bite. Sebastian stared at him as he returned the cupcake to the center of the table. Sebastian, without breaking eye contact with Blaine, picked it up and bit over Blaine’s bite mark. It tasted like Chocolate and Blaine’s breath - minty. Blaine picked up the cupcake and took another bite, looking straight at Sebastian like they were in a staring contest, but it didn’t feel like a staring contest. It felt like a truce. And the cupcake tasted like his minty, Tom’s brand toothpaste; and brandy from the flask Sebastian hid in his jacket; and the herbal cigarettes Sebastian smoked because he liked the smoking asthetic but didn’t want to hurt his voice. As they ate the cupcake, Sebastian stopped watching Blaine’s eyes, started watching his lips, and then his eyes followed the cupcake as it slowly disappeared, and finally his eyes rested on Kurt. He took his final bites of cupcake looking at Kurt. He leaned back in his chair and cocked his head, smirking, so Kurt knew he was going to say something hurtful.

“gay Golden Girl isn’t acting suffocatingly possessive,” Sebastian looked at Blaine with mock sad eyes, “Did you break up? Don’t worry, rebound sex amazing.”

“Like you’ve ever dated anyone long enough to need to rebound.” Kurt said rolling his eyes and leaning towards Sebastian, “I just realized there is no reason to feel threatened by an upgraded freshman with an understandable, if stalkerish, crush.” He fake smiled at Sebastian, “We’ve all been there.”

“Kurt.” Blaine warned, as if Sebastian hadn’t been asking for it,

“Age matters less then you think. Experience is more important. And I’ve had plenty.” Sebastian said, leaning in with a nasty look on his face.

“I’m sure you have, Craigslist”

“Kurt!” Blaine warned again,

“When you get bored of princess pg, call me.”

“Sebastian!” Blaine warned, feeling the situation getting out of hand.

Sebastian smirked, predatory. And than his face became mock innocent, he looked at Blaine, “Do I have chocolate on my face?” Blaine could fall for that mock innocence any time.

“Yeah, on your bottom lip,” He said, gesturing. Sebastian managed to lick his bottom lip and miss the chocolate, which made Kurt roll his eyes. Blaine leaned in to wipe it away.

“That’s what he wants!” Kurt hissed, pulling Blaine back and wiping away the chocolate himself, a rough thumb over Sebastian’s lip. “Happy Birthday Sebastian. We’re going to crush you at regionals.” Kurt said, turning on his heel. Sebastian looked shell-shocked, fingers ghosting over his lip, where Kurt had touched.

Blaine pulled Kurt back to the table, “Good luck at regionals. Really.” He told Sebastian, who once again looked mildly annoyed and slightly predatory. “But you need to remember people aren’t trophies. You can’t win them by being more ruthless or witty-“

“-he is not witty-” Kurt whispered to Blaine. Blaine pointedly ignored the comment.

“- Or anything.”

Sebastian smirked, “Then tell me, hot stuff, how do you win them?”

“You don’t.” Blaine answered incredulously, and Kurt took a second to appreciate how incredibly amazing and kind his boyfriend was “Though, not putting them into surgery would have helped.”

Sebastian looked down at his shoes, “yeah,”

“You really like me?” Blaine asked, “You need to cooperate with my boyfriend, because I’m not leaving him.”

Sebastian squinted at him, not quite understanding, “Co-op-er-ate? Not my style.”

“Then we should head out.” Kurt said shortly,

“Wait. It could be.” Sebastian said, speaking to Kurt, “What do you mean by...”

“Exactly what you are thinking.” Kurt replied,

“Well... Should we go somewhere more private?” Sebastian’s eyes shined with interest.

“Follow me,” Kurt said,

“Ok, fe-“

“And if you insult me, this ends now and you will never get to even hear my proposal,”

Sebastian mimed zipped lips. And if that wasn't a turn-on, Kurt didn't know what was.

[Trouble](https://data.whicdn.com/images/303247952/original.gif)


	2. No Kissing On The First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunter arrives at his new school and meets his new Vice Captain and... it’s going to be a long year.

9 months later...

[Sebastian ](https://images.app.goo.gl/BDUu3tV6caQuXSMf6)

“This is ridiculous.” Sebastian started. “And probably illegal, or at least against show-choir rules.”

“Sebastian” The headmaster said putting a hand on his shoulder. “I promise this has nothing to do with your personal actions” Sebastian tore his shoulder away and glared at Hunter, though he gave him a quick once-over. Hot. Sebastian turned back to the headmaster to continue his assault, but Hunter stepped in first.

“Sir, if I could.” [Hunter said](https://images.app.goo.gl/xb8iKgeGvHREPtNV9). “Maybe me and Sebastian could go for a drive and work something out.” The headmaster nodded, seeming relieved to be freed from Sebastian wrangling duty.

Sebastian stalked out of the headmasters office in front of Hunter, “Fine,” he said. And then quieter, so only Hunter could hear, “but only because of the washboard abs.” Hunter smiled. Sebastian was famous among Dalton boys for his charm, but Hunter had no intention of being seduced by the younger boy.

“We’ll take my car,” Hunter said, gently leading Sebastian to the school’s north exit by his shoulder. Sebastian stared at Hunter’s hand on his shoulder for a second to long and Hunter let go like he had been burned.

[Sebastian following Hunter](https://images.app.goo.gl/V2V7idzQGYcnymvq8)

“Or we could take my Porsche... West Point boy,”

“Fine, but I drive.” Hunter replied, “Since you’re 15,”

“I have a drivers’ permit.” Sebastian mumbled, almost too quiet to hear.

They took Hunter’s car.

A small Honda Civic with Hunter’s stuff impeccably organized in the back. Sebastian tapped his fingers on the passenger side dash impatiently, “Are you going to drive?”

“Are you going to buckle your seatbelt?”

“No,”

Hunter sighed and started the engine, “Your funeral,” On second thought, Sebastian buckled his seatbelt. Hunter smiled.

“You know a lot about me, I don’t even know your name,”

“Hunter Clarington,” Hunter glanced at him, switching gears without looking at the road, basically being hot, Sebastian thought, “and I am not even remotely bi-curious, so you can put those thoughts out of your head,”

Sebastian licked his lips and looked away, “Mmm... Everyone has an exception. Mine was Santana Lopez.” Hunter smiled, eyes dancing with humor that had an evil edge. Sebastian liked that look on him.

“How many of the New Directions have you fucked?”

Sebastian lowered his window so the air could make his quiff look more fuckable, “Let’s see, Kurt and Blaine, obviously; Puck once when he was experimenting; went half way with Berry; almost got Finn to hate fuck me but he started moralizing; Santana, and with her comes Brittany; Schuester once but it didn’t go any further...”

“The coach? Nevermind, this is perfect.” Hunter said, smiling, but without humor. And without humor, the evil glint in his eyes just looked scary. Uncontrollable.

“No.” Sebastian said, closing his window, “I turned over a new leaf. No more making the New Directions miserable - or injured - just to win a trophy.”

Hunter looked disappointed “And you wonder why Dalton brought me in from Colorado?”

“I put Blaine in the hospital.” Hunter pulled over on the side of the road so Sebastian could look him in the eyes. “I nearly - You don’t understand. A trophy is not is not worth people dying or being permanently in-” Sebastian took a breath and closed his eyes, breaking eye contact. He leaned back “injured. Saying that outloud-“

“Makes you realize how stupid you were last year?” Hunter finished his sentence.

“I just got wrapped up in it all.”

“C’mon” Hunter got out of the car and opened his trunk.

Sebastian, watched him suspiciously. “What are you going to do to me?” He asked, and, receiving no answer, warned, “I was part of the Dalton Academy Fight Club, and I can’t tell you anything about it - obviously- but I knocked out guys bigger then you.”

This statement was apparently stupid enough to garner Hunter’s attention because the older boy glanced up at him and said, without breaking eye-contact, “I was trained in hand combat by former navy seals. Three courses - fast death, slow death, and grievous injury.” Hunter went back to rooting through his trunk. He pulled out a backpack and an animal carrier, and when he looked up Sebastian was gone.

“Sebastian? Sebastian!” Hunter took a breath and scanned his surroundings. So much fucking military training, yet he had no idea where Sebastian was. Hunter took another deep breath, putting himself in the mind of an upset (and possibly afraid), spoiled, sophomore brat. [The road ahead twisted](https://images.app.goo.gl/4FXmoBWCFnDr53BJ6), so Sebastian must have gone that way. Hunter would have heard if he had stepped off the road near the car, and he probably wanted to get out of sight as quickly as possible. Probably. Hunter pulled Mr. Puss out of his carrier and jogged along the road. Cliffs blocked the right side of the road, so if Sebastian left the road he went to the left. Finally, Hunter found where Sebastian had gone into the woods, his fresh footprints in Ohio mud.

“Hey Sebastian. I was joking.” Hunter shouted gently. “Look. I am sorry. Where are you? You’re going to get hurt.”

“Are you really that worried about my safety?” Sebastian asked, looking down at Hunter from a boulder. His storm-off had nothing to do with fear, and everything to do with imagining factories that teach boys to kill other boys and knowing someday Hunter would lead one of those factories, and Sebastian not being able to deal with that, but Hunter didn’t need to know that. Regardless, this gave Sebastian valuable information. Deep under his icy composure, Hunter was capable of feeling concern. And he was hot. Somehow, that was enough for Sebastian to fall head over heels. “Is that a cat?” Sebastian asked, climbing down from his perch and staring incredulously at Mr. Puss, “Did you just pull a cat from your trunk?”

Hunter smiled “Meet Mr. Puss,”

[Hunter with his cat](https://images.app.goo.gl/QTMoQVGFVdUv4tA68)

“That seems like animal abuse,”

Hunter frowned, “I would never hurt you” he whispered to his cat.

“Look,” Sebastian said, angrily raking a hand through his quiff, “you are a handsome, freakishly organized, rule-follower. You even have a furry friend who almost hides your more sadistic leanings. I can see why the administration likes you. But there is a reason the Warblers are led by students, not the administration. This isn’t Colorado Springs. You will never belong here.”

Hunter hugged his cat to his chest and started walking back to his car, trusting Sebastian to follow. “I’ve attended a lot of boarding schools, trust me, they’re basically interchangeable.” Once they reached his car, Hunter placed Mr. Puss in his backpack so that the cat could peak its head out of the top of the bag. “We are going hiking.” Hunter announced.

Sebastian decided to ignore Hunter’s strange relationship with his cat, a creature that looked a bad guy’s side kick in a James Bond film.

“Are you going to murder me?”

“I am going to convince you to be my vice captain,” Hunter explained, slinging his backpack onto his back and walking to the [trailhead](https://images.app.goo.gl/yEXp7PS5ok9QzkbM9).

“Oh,” Sebastian said like he had reached an epiphany “ _I’m_ going to murder _you_.”

“And that sentiment is why I thought walking might be safer then driving.”

They entered the forest, Hunter helping Sebastion over a log, “I am feeling strong first date vibes, Mr. not-even-remotely-bicurious,”

“I have a fiancé” Hunter responded.

“She doesn’t need to know.” Sebastian responded “I love closeted boys with girls out of state. They fuck like it’s their last night before prison,”

Hunter gave him a warning look, “I am going to ignore everything you just said for obvious reasons.” He patted his cat over his shoulder, “I have researched you and the other Warblers. Last year you were a 14-year-old sophomore, yet the warblers looked up to you. You lost regionals, yet they respected you. And you were an asshole, but they liked you, or, at least, were loyal to you.”

“Your point?” Sebastian asked, already struggling to keep up the repertoire as they hiked literally straight up a mountain.

“I want you on my side.”

Sebastian shrugged “Ok, I want to be captain.”

“I’ll graduate. You’ll be captain next year.”

“If you think I am so capable, let me be captain this year.” Sebastian replied, “I would let you sing a few solos.”

Hunter arched an eyebrow, “I never said you are capable. I think you are brilliant and have potential, but you make everything too painfully personal.”

“I don-”

“[Slushying Blaine](https://images.app.goo.gl/rnXUjKrX1dtR4Bf69)?”

“I migh-“

“[And Santana](https://images.app.goo.gl/5dc41FQNooVGDBA19)?”

“I might make our rivalry with the New Directions too personal” Sebastian conceded.

“Yeah” Hunter said, surging ahead of Sebastian on the steep trail and ignoring his complaints.

“This sucks. Hiking sucks. Why is it so fucking steep?”

Hunter rolled his eyes, “At my military academy-“

“Oh. my. god.” Sebastian cut him off, sounding extremely annoyed.

“I said three words,”

“Four. And if this entire semester is going to be a fucking hot, straight, military brat, with a stick up his-“

“Sebastian” Hunter warned,

“- Comparing everything we do to your fucking hetero-obsessive West Point feeder factory in Colorado Springs, I. Will. Shoot. Myself.”

“Ok. Fine. I won’t talk about Carson.” Hunter promised as they continued up the mountain “Tell me about Blaine. Do you think we can get him back?”

Sebastian spent the remainder of their ascent filling Hunter in on Blaine, Blaine’s relationship with Kurt, that Blaine can actually sing _that_ well, and as much information as he felt comfortable about his own relationship with Blaine. Even Sebastian had a limit to how much he was willing to tell a boy he just met about his personal life.

“Blaine is like a loyal puppy dog around Kurt, but Kurt’s in New York and I’d bet anything we can lead him back in the right direction.” Sebastian summed up.

“Does he still like you?” Hunter asked him flatly. Like attraction was just another tool for world domination.

“He never- He liked Kurt and me together.” Sebastian explained, nearly tripping into a tree. He was liking hiking less and less wth each step. “I kissed him without Kurt there once, he was drunk and had just gotten in a fight with Kurt. He immediately pulled away and said it felt wrong.”

“Loyal even when drunk. Noted.” Hunter said, mentally crossing out a few plans to get Blaine back to Dalton.

“He likes hanging out with me though. Like I said, he went to McKinley for Kurt, he still mostly hangs out with his Dalton friends. I met him because he was inviting us to a play.”

Hunter nodded, “You tried to bring him back to Dalton by injuring his boyfriend. Even if you had hit Kurt instead of Blaine, people reject change when they feel attacked. We need to lure Blaine back to Dalton, and remind him how much better things could be for him with us.” The trail had flattened, and slowly twisted its way to the edge of the forest.

“Are you giving me lessons in evil?”

“I call it ‘success at any cost’” Hunter responded

“We can steal their nationals trophy, they’ll send Blaine to retrieve it.”

Hunter smiled, “- And the fact that he is their de-facto Warbler laison will be, in itself, a reminder where he belongs. I like it.” Hunter stepped in front of Sebastian and led him out onto an incredible overlook. “See, we’re such a good team already.”

<https://images.app.goo.gl/wYHZubzUMJr2msim6>

“Wow. From up here Ohio almost looks like not the suckiest place on earth.” Sebastian said sarcastically, but he really did appreciate the view. Hunter put his hand on Sebastian’s shoulder, and Sebastian pulled away angrily. They stood in silence for a moment. “You can’t do that. You can’t bring me to some pretty view and look at me with those eyes and put your hand on my arm and then say you’re straight and I have no chance with you. You can’t.”

Hunter sat down with his legs hanging over a thousand foot drop. After a moment, Sebastian sat beside him. And Hunter pulled out his stupid cat, which Sebastian had forgotten about, and held it in his lap. Sebastian patted its head. “Ok.”


	3. No Falling In Love With Me

“Ok," Sebastian said. Carefully, removing himself from the cliff side and standing up. "I'll be your Vice Captain. But, I want to choose the music, and write the choreography." Hunter placed Mr. Puss back into his backpack and stood up. Sebastian turned to face him, "And you can have half of the solos... if you can sing."

Hunter walked past him and started down the mountain, "You choose half of the songs; I'll do choreography; we split the Solos," He glanced up at Sebastian "trust me, I can sing,"

"You choose all of the songs; I do all of the choreography; we split Solos" Sebastian replied, running down to where Hunter was carefully walking down the steep incline. 

"We choose the songs and do the choreography together; I get veto power over choreography; you get veto power over song choice; we split solos," Hunter offered, Sebastian turned to walk backwards so he could look Hunter in the face.

"No. Hunter, that'll be a trainwreck." Sebastian argued, tapping his head, "This brilliant brain does not do "cooperation"."

Hunter rolled his eyes, "We'll try it for a few weeks, and if it doesn't work, we'll try something else."

"Fine." Sebastian said, turning to walk forwards. "Why does going down suck more then going up?"

Hunter eyed him, "Just be careful. If you fall and break a leg, I'm not gonna carry you out," 

"You have nothing to worry about," Sebastian declared, turning to face him. His foot caught on a root and Hunter grabbed his shirt to stop him from falling. Sebastian stumbled forward and slung his arms around Hunters neck. "You saved me." He whispered in Hunter's ear. Hunter shivered all over, hand still clutching Sebastian's shirt. Sebastian smiled brilliantly, looking straight into Hunter's eyes. "I think that means you have to kiss me. Disney movies and all that."

Hunter leaned in, so his lips brushed Sebastian's cheek "You want to be my damsel in distress?"

"If it means you'll kiss me." Hunter let go of him, suddenly. And Sebastian stumbled backwards. They hiked in silence for a moment, Sebastian nervously glancing at Hunter.

"Look. In a month, Blaine will be back on the team and you can have a crush on him." Hunter said. He sighed and looked straight into Sebastian's eyes. "This needs to end." He said motioning between them. Sebastian rolled his eyes, _like anything had actually happened_.

Sebastian kicked a rock down the trail, "Because you have a fiancé?"

"Because we are going to be roommates." Hunter replied.

Sebastian looked at him, surprised, "Jon's my roommate"

"I switched with him,"

"Why? If you don't want to do m-"

"- Are you always thinking about sex?" Hunter cut him off.

Sebastian smirked, looking him up and down, "Only when I'm looking at you."

Hunter looked down the trail resolutely, "I want to keep an eye on you. I need you to stay on the Warblers, and if you keep acting how you act, you won't."

"Right. You want to sleep with me to make sure I'm following your rules." Sebastian turned to Hunter "And then what?" He asked, smiling, "Punish me when I break them? Sounds super straight."

"Keep hiking Smythe." 

Hunter liked driving fast. He didn't like driving fast the way Sebastian did. Sebastian liked weaving through traffic at 90 miles an hour and doing figure eights. Hunter liked open country roads and shifting gears effortlessly in his manual. Sebastian put his window down and threw his feet up on the dash. Hunter gave him a death glare and Sebastian grinned. Annoying Hunter was his new hobby. Hunter gunned the car, 103 miles per hour, then slammed the breaks. Sebastian felt the seat belt imbed itself in his chest but sebastian kept his feet on the dash, if Hunter wanted to play chicken, he could play chicken. Hunter was planning his next move when a call came over his Bluetooth.

He answered it, after telling Sebastian, with a pointed look, "It's my fiancé, Mary Ann."

"I don't care." Sebastian said shrugging,

"Hey, babe." Hunter greeted her, glancing at Sebastian feet on the dash with an annoyed look,

"Hey, love bug" She replied, voice warm honey.

"You look like you care." Hunter said to Sebastian, who was regarding the car's Bluetooth speaker with pure disgust,

"You should at least respect me enough to date someone with better nicknaming skills" Sebastian replied, loud enough Mary Ann could hear.

"Honey pie, whose the backseat bitch?" Mary Ann asked, her voice becoming decidedly less warm. Sebastian smiled and pulled his feet off the dash

"I rescind my earlier statement,"

"I don't" She said,

"Fun." He replied, "Sebastian Smythe, the boy whose gonna steal your boyfriend."

Hunter gave him a warning look,

"Can't wait to watch you try," Mary Ann said sarcastically, "I'll call you later boo." She said to Hunter, "Et sans le boudin."

"Tu parles français comme une vache espagnole." Sebastian said before she ended the call.

"You speak french?" Hunter asked him. "

I lived in Paris for a few years."

"Ce semestre va être super amusant." Hunter said sarcastically. (This semester is going to be _super fun_.)


	4. No Breaking The Rules

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunter’s rule poster explained. Wrote this late at night unedited.
> 
> Ok so I totally restructured this story. Sorry! But now I think I have a better idea where it is going. So that shouldn’t happen again. Probably.
> 
> Also I tried kinda writing sex for the first time and it’s not great so there’s that.

Sebastian quickly learned that Hunter was obsessed with rules. Like obsessed. Hunter even hung a rule poster in their room.

“I’m more interested what your enforcement mechanisms will be.” Sebastian said with a smirk. He was stretched out on his twin sized bed, looking Hunter up and down. Hunter smiled good-naturedly and casually pulled of his shirt, walking towards Sebastian. He threw his shirt at Sebastian’s chest and fell into his bed opposite of Sebastian’s. “Don’t find out.”

Originally there were only 4 rules:

1\. No sneaking out.  
2\. Lights out at 10 pm.  
3\. Keep your side of the room clean.  
4\. No drugs or alcohol.

Realizing Sebastian would need much more rehabilitation before he followed that list of rules, Hunter modified it.

1\. ~~No sneaking out.~~ Only sneak off-campus on weekend-nights.  
2\. ~~Lights out at 10.~~ If you wake Hunter up between 10 and 7, I reserve the right to beat you up or ban boy band songs from rehearsal for a week.  
3\. ~~Keep your side of the room clean.~~ Keep your stuff on your side.  
4\. ~~No drugs or alcohol.~~ Keep anything that could get us in trouble Out. Of. Sight. Thank You.

He also added a litany of rules as problems came up:

5\. No using each others’ mugs, chargers, clothes, toothbrushes (ew), scissors, school supplies, anything.  
Sebastian liked to steal Hunter’s mug at night, while Hunter was asleep, and use it to drink vodka or espresso because Hunter was a prude and the most exciting thing he drank was green tea. Everything else, Sebastian used (and lost) when he couldn’t find his own.

6\. No marking the posters.

Sebastian had taken to keeping track of how many times he broke the rules with marks on the poster to annoy Hunter. It actually helped Hunter figure out how effective his methods were when it came to decreasing Sebastian’s more problematic habits, but he couldn’t allow open insubordination.

7\. No smoking (herbal cigererates count).  
Hunter had been ok with the herbal cigarettes (they were a good source of Vitamin D), until Sebastian dropped an ember on Mr. Puss. The cat went straight up into flame. Sebastian doused it with his cold coffee, and Mr. Puss was fine, but Hunter was not amused.

8\. No loud masturbation.  
They mutually agreed on this rule.

9\. No kissing, making out, or sex in the room.

Hunter walked into his dorm room. Sebastian’s legs were wrapped around Nick’s waist and Nick slowly pumped in and out of him, using Hunter’s bed as leverage. Jeff was plastered to Sebastian’s back, biting kisses into the boy’s neck. “Perfect Smythe. So fucking perfect.” All naked, of course. Jeff was spent and Sebastian and Nick were close. Hunter blinked, his hand locked on the door knob, taking a moment to understand what was happening. Sebastian and Hunter met eyes and Sebastian came, arching back. Hunter slammed the door shut. He held it closed and stuffed a hand down his own pants, eyes flitting from side to side to make sure no one was coming. Like a fucking teenager. But that was what he was, wasn’t he?

He didn’t know what to imagine, Mary Ann or Sebastian. What he should want and what he could have. They bled together in his fantasy. Quieting their smart remarks with thrusts and kisses. He imagined sharp teeth biting into his shoulder. The door moved behind him, someone trying to leave the room. Hunter pulled his hand out of his pants, smoothed his blazer, and stepped out of the way, hoping he didn’t look like he had just been jerking off. Nick and Jeff shuffled by with giggles.

Sebastian swung his head out of the room, hands braced on the doorframe. Apparently, it was abundantly clear what Hunter had been doing because Sebastian’s first words were, “Hey, gorgeous. Looks like someone enjoyed the free porn.” Hunter sighed and pushed past him into his room. “Still not even bi-curious?” So Sebastian was going to flirt like a douche today.

Hunter gave him a look, “Sebastian. Whatever just happened meant nothing. I have-“

“A fiancé, I know.” Sebastian said, sounding more annoyed then he had any right to be.

“You need to fucking bleach my bed.” Hunter replied, walking into their bathroom and slamming the door behind him. He was acting like a child. He knew that. He hated it.

Sebastian pretended to study Spanish while pouting. Hunter took a cold shower and then wrote rule #9.

10\. No crashing my skype dates.

“Jesus, ce garçon est le pagaille. Was it hot?” Mary Ann asked.

“Mary Ann!”

“I’m just asking the important questions.”

“Was watching my roommate have sex with two of our best friends hot?” Hunter asked rhetorically,

She laughed, “That sounds pretty hot.”

The dorm room door opened, “Well, answer the question Hunter, was it hot?” Sebastian asked hovering over Hunter’s chair with his punchable smirk. He met eyes with Mary Ann and licked a stripe up Hunter’s neck ending at his ear. Hunter shivered, feeling himself harden. Mary Ann giggled and Hunter struggled to keep his breathing under control. Mary Ann trusted him. Trusted him enough to watch his roommate LICK him and not worry. Fuck, his girlfriend was amazing “Your dick certainly thought so.” Sebastian whispered in his ear, loud enough Mary Ann could hear, but low enough it felt dirty. Sebastian looked at Mary Ann, “Does watching your boyfriend get fucked by his sexier roommate sound hot?”

Amazingly, it was Sebastian’s ridiculous claim he was sexier than Hunter that got the older boy out of his seat. Mary Ann rolled her eyes these over-fucking-competitive sex-crazed boys, though she was kind of the same.

Hunter stood up, grabbed Sebastian, and slammed him onto his bed, twisting his arm behind him in the process. “Funny you think I would be the one getting fucked. Go to the fucking library and let me talk to my girlfriend.” He had one hand gripping Sebastians wrist, pushing the boys hand into his back, pinning him to the mattress with his own arm. He let his free hand wander down Sebastian’s side.

Sebastian smirked into the mattress, he hated and loved how turned on he was. Clearly his game had gone to far. He thought he should walk away before Hunter hurt him or hate-fucked him. But the part of his brain that answered only to his dick wanted to push things further. “What are you going to do to me if I don’t ... daddy?” Sebastian said, all mock innocence.

Hunter was frustrated, not just because he felt himself become painfully hard, but because he wanted Sebastian to feel something. To experience emotions that were beyond his control. To look at their relationship as more then a joke or a game. Hunter glanced at the computer to make sure they were out of view of the camera, of his fiancé. Then he pushed his free hand into Sebastian’s boxers. Sebastian’s cock was definitely hard.

“Wanna turn the screen so your girl can watch.” Sebastian whispered, still joking, but quiet enough Mary Ann couldn’t hear. Hunter’s brain caught up to his actions, and realized he couldn’t just fucking grope his roommate to see if he could get him hard. Hunter took a deep breath and moved his hand so it was firmly gripping the inside of Sebastian’s thigh, right next to his groin.

“Ever heard of the Internal Sapheanous Nerve?” He asked, “You have two choices Sebastian, leave or I’ll make the next few moments of your life very painful,”

“Hunter! Are you threatening to pressure point your roommate?” Mary Ann chided.

Hunter loosened his grip and Sebastian turned around and shoved him away. He looked, for a moment, scared and hurt. Hunter immediately felt bad as Sebastian stormed out of their room. He fell back into his chair, pinching his forehead.

“Hunter” Mary Ann said, sounding softly reproaching,

“What?”

“I don’t know much about Dalton, but it doesn’t sound like the type of place where boys are pressure pointing each-other. I know your father-“

“Hit me? Hits my mom? Mary Ann, this has nothing to do with that.”

“And then you went to a military boarding school where the boys were merciless and the instructors used every version of corporal punishment they deigned lawful. You learned to use violence and intimidation to get your way. These kids use dumb pranks,”

“Sebastian slushied Blaine and put him in the hospital.”

“Slushied?”

“It’s like... the bullying technique of choice in Ohio. They throw slushies into each-others’ faces,” Hunter explained, slowly getting her point. “Ok, this is not Colorado Springs.”

She laughed, “No it is not. And you need to find a Dalton way to handle your flirty french emmerdeur.” She said, smiling at him, “I think this is good, mon ange. Learn to deal with annoyances without flying off the handle.”

“Are you worried I’ll turn into my dad?”

“No. Never. You’re not him.” And she said it so confidently he believed it himself. “Everyone is afraid of becoming their parents, but it’s not something you have to worry about. So go find that fucking annoying boy-toy you live with and apologize for being terrifying.” She ordered. “And, the virtual threesome did sound pretty hot if you need to figure any feelings out.” She said carefully, “I mean, we are really young and I know neither of us got the chance to do much... exploration.”

Hunter shook his head, looking her in the eyes, “I don’t need to figure anything out. I don’t need any exploration. You’re the one that I love.”

“I flirt with people.” Sebastian said, closing the door behind them “That was not flirting, that was something else.”

Hunter sighed and sat across from him. Loud music emanated from the commons, Hunter had pulled Sebastian out of the party and into some random freshman dorm to talk.

“What you did went beyond flirting too.” Hunter pointer out.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow, “I never violently pushed you against a bed and shoved my hand down your pants. So I would say one of us is much more the perpetrator in this situation.”

“You had a threesome on my bed.”

“It’s a small room, not involving your bed would have been logistically difficult.”

Hunter looked down at his feet, shaking his head, this wasn't going to work, “We can’t be roommates.”

“Because I make you uncomfortable, or because you’ll cheat on your fiancé if you’re in a room with me.”

“Because what happened earlier, what I did, was insane and unacceptable and had to do with my feelings more then your actions. And I don’t want to get like that with you again.”

“Violent or sexual?”

“Either!”

“One is worse.”

Hunter was confident and cold. He didn’t make mistakes. He got angry and did whatever. He was ruthless in pursuit of goals. He never apologized for any of it. But he wasn’t in a military academy anymore. He looked Sebastian straight in the eyes, “I’m sorry.”

Sebastian grinned, smirk lighting up his face, “That’s all you had to say.” He jumped off the bed and turned to leave.

“Hold on,” Hunter stopped him,

Sebastian turned around and smirked at Hunter, “You can’t switch rooms. Watching you get undressed is free porn. I’m used to constant eye candy, I would go into withdrawal if you left, right before sectionals”

Hunter rolled his eyes, “Can’t have that.”

Sebastian softened his tone. “You were right. On that homoerotic hike. You said I would get kicked out if I keep acting like I was. And I don’t act how I was when you’re there. I need you to keep me in line, anyway you want” Sebastian winked at him. Hunter shook his head and shoved Sebastian as they left the dorm together, Sebastian whispered in his ear as they left “Muss your hair a little, everyone thinks we’re hooking up, and it will seem like you’re lame in bed if you have impeccable hair.”

Sebastian had an ulterior motive for wanting Hunter to stay. Not everyone worries about becoming their parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went to boarding school for a semester and the headmaster told us this story of how he was having a candle-lit dinner with his girlfriend and her cat jumped on the table. Because of the oil on its, fur the cat went up into flame immediately, but the oil burned off quickly so the cat was fine. So that is where that story comes from.


	5. No Threatening Teachers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunter tries to punish Sebastian for waking him up at 6 am and things don’t go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I kind-of re-structured this fic and rewrote the last chapter so sorry! to everyone who has been reading it, but that shouldn’t happen again. Hopefully.

_11\. No threatening teachers_

“I did not threaten her” Sebastian argued, staring at the rule. 

“You flipped a desk in front of her.”

**12 hours earlier.**

“Ok, you have two choices.” Hunter said blinking sleep from his eyes and switching his lamp on. Sebastian pulled himself off the ground. His attempt to sneak in quietly had ended when he tripped over his Spanish book.

“You really like the false choice line don’t you? ‘You have two choices: be murdered, or give me your wallet.’ ‘You have two choices: be decapiitated or apologize.’” Sebastian said, rolling his eyes. Hunter looked down at his cat, who was sleeping on his chest, and tried to think of a retort because he was going to give Sebastian a false choice. Sebastian sensed his hesitation and smirked, “What were the two choices going to be Hunter? Were you going to make me choose betwee-“

“I get it. Because you decided to wake me up at” Hunter glanced at the clock, “5:40 am, you get to spend the next four hours doing my morning routine, with an extra run”

Every morning, Hunter woke up at seven and did half an hour of yoga before going to class at eight. But since Sebastian had woken him up early, he figured he could fit in a thirty minute run and extra yoga.

Sebastian swept his hair back, “Ok, I can pull a high-functioning all-nighter.”

Hunter rolled his eyes, of course Sebastian saw this as a challenge, “Sure,”

With no sleep and, Hunter suspected, quite a bit of alcohol in his system, Sebastian was actually following orders and listening. He had never done yoga before but caught on really fast, all that dance experience. And the morning was generally pleasent. Actually it was really fun. Hunter liked the silence of the mornings, but yoga just isn’t as fun without taking breaks to try breakdance moves. 

“Do you think we could all do this simultaneously in competition.” Sebastian was balanced on one hand. Hunter pushed him over.

“No...well maybe if the other guys got stronger.”

And running isn’t as fun when you’re not competing. “I beat you,” Sebastian breathed, taping their dorm door. 

“You used a short cut.” Hunter pointed out,

“Sucks to be new, I get to shower first.” 

While Sebastian showered, Hunter made fruit smoothies and eggs thinking the last two hours had been way too fun to count as a punishment. Sebastian took way too long in the shower and Hunter made fun of him as they ate breakfast. Finally, Hunter realized how he could salvage the punishment. 

“Come to class with me.”

“Fine, what’s the class” Sebastian asked, grabbing a notebook, 

“It’s a college level class on Modern Latin American history taught by a professor from Ohio State.” Hunter said, locking their dorm, “You’re in advanced Spanish and US history, right?”

“AP Spanish and AP US history,” Sebastian corrected, Hunter rolled his eyes,

“You’ll like this class,”

  
“Dr. Gianni, this is my roommate, Sebastian. Can he sit in on class today?” 

“Of course,” Hunter’s professor responded, beaming, “maybe he can take it next year. And, you know you can just call me Fiona,”

Sebastian grinned right back at her, leaning in a bit too close, dripping with charm, “Thank you, Fiona,”

The other kids in the class laughed. They knew Sebastian. Hunter pulled him to the back of the class and sat him down next to John. “I thought you played for the other team,” John joked. At least now Hunter really understood how meaningless Sebastian’s flirting was.

“Ok,” Fiona said, “today we are going to continue talking about the rise, fall, and corruption of leftist leaders in the seventies.” If Hunter had been looking at Sebastian, he would have noticed how Sebastian tensed up. This was going to end badly. “Last week we discussed how the extremely corrupt Perón family was overthrown by a military coup-“ 

“American backed” Sebastian muttered, shooting her a glare. The entire class turned to stare at him,

“Excuse me.” 

“When the US trains the leaders of a coup, pays them, and arms them, its called a US-backed military coup.” He said, his voice nasty. Hunter sighed, he shouldn’t have brought Sebastian to class tired, he was going to be bitchy for fun. 

A brittle smile spread across Fiona’s face, “The United States has spent the last fifty years attempting to support democracy and freedom in Latin America,”

“Really? About 300,000 murdered Argentine journalists, activists and leftists would disagree with that assessment.” Sebastian said, an edge to his voice. Hunter shot him a look.

“Ok, lets talk about-“

“Fuck you.” Sebastian flipped his desk and walked out of class. 

“You won’t learn very much with that attitude,” She shouted after him. Sebastian barely stoped himself from punching a wall.

Hunter flipped the desk back over. “I’m sorry. I have no idea...” He stammered,

“I think this is a good lesson for everyone. We are talking about democracy, human rights, freedom. People become extremely passionate.” Fiona said, easily regaining control of the classroom. Hunter was standing over Sebastian’s desk, staring at the door, wondering if he should go find Sebastian. “Hunter let him cool off.” Fiona said, “Sit down. Today we are talking about Cuba.”

Sebastian left the school. Ran until he was far enough away he could breathe. He punched a tree until his hand bled. And then he got tired and sat down and felt the world spin around him. He felt like he laid there forever, staring up at the sky, the cool ground giving him goosebumps. When he couldn’t feel anything, too tired out by his own histrionics and the all-nighter, he returned to his dorm. It was 9: 20 AM. An hour and twenty minutes since class had started. Hunter still had forty more minutes of class time. Sebastian locked their dorm room and felt around the edge of his mattress for a key. He pulled a chest out from under his bed, unlocked it. He ignored the photos and papers in the chest, he couldn’t look at those, physically couldn’t, not now. Instead he pulled out a small, metal box. He closed the dorm room’s blinds before opening it and pulling out the gun, letting his fingers find the metal instrument’s sharp edges. He fell asleep hugging it to his chest. He knew what he had to do.

  
“Please, don’t go to the principal.” Hunter asked Fiona after class. “I think there are extenuating circumstances that I am unaware of.”

“Hunter, he flipped a desk.”

“The last time we got in a fight, Sebastian put super glue in my hair gel and then challenged me to a singing contest.” Hunter argued, “He doesn’t hit people or flip tables. This is an extraordinary circumstance. Have you seen the Dalton Fight Club? I thought fight clubs required people actually hit each-other.” Fiona laughed. Fight club at Dalton was more like shadow boxing because the boys were too nice to hurt each-other, “I won’t bring him back to class. Just let this be his one free pass.”

“Fine.” She said, “Take care of that revolutionary.”

Sebastian awoke to pounding on the door and fifteen missed texts. Hunter’s voice was peak authoritative, “Sebastian, let me in. Now. I swear, after what you pulled this morning-“ Sebastian threw the gun back into its box, closed the chest, locked it, and pushed it all away. He opened the door. 

“When I go to school I expect to be taught facts.” Sebastian said defensively. 

“You attacked her.”

“I didn’t touch her.”

Hunter sighed and sat down on his bed, “Tell me why, and we don’t have to fight about this.”

“I don’t need a why to care about democracy, Hunter.” 

“No one in that room was arguing against democracy.”

“Yes, they were just...” Sebastian looked up at the ceiling, a million words he couldn’t say ringing in his ears. “There is so much you don’t understand.”

“Help me understand.”

“Not my job.” Sebastian wanted to run away from the conversation, but he realized he might be able to help Hunter understand his feelings without an unnecessary conversation about his past, “You have google. Look up Operation Condor. Look up the dirty war. If you believe her propaganda, that is a choice you made.”

“Ok,” Hunter nodded, hoping to placate Sebastian. He couldn’t tell why Sebastian was acting insane, tiredness or deeper issues, “I will. Get some sleep and then we can talk about it.” 

Sebastian turned away from him and buried his head in his covers,

“Fuck off, Hunter. Forget this all.”


	6. No answering each other’s phones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunter violates Sebastian’s privacy.

Sebastian was dead asleep, so on the fifth ring Hunter picked up his phone. “Hello?” He said, his voice highly annoyed. 

“Is this um... I’m trying to reach Sebastian, my son.” Zack Terry, Hunter assumed. An attorney. The only time Sebastian referred to him was when threatening legal consequences, (as in “Say one more word and you’ll be hearing from my father, who happens to be the best attorney in Ohio. Of course you might be more comfortable in the apish jail environment,”)

“Sorry, sir. This is Hunter Clarington, Sebastian’s roommate. He’s asleep, do you want me to wake him up?”

“No.” Sebastian’s dad said softly, “That’s fine. Umm. How are you doing? I didn’t know Sebastian had a new roommate.”

“...” _I would be doing great except I decided to try to police your slutty party-boy son, who alternates between crushing on me like a puppy and fighting with me over every. little. fucking. thing. So that’s not great._ “I just moved here from a military academy in Colorado Springs. Me and Sebastian co-captain the Warblers. So it’s great. Sharing a room and everything.”

“Yeah. That’s awesome. Really. I guess I should leave you to your high-schooler things. But... a... tell him I called.” Hunter was about to hang up the phone, but he waited a moment, to see if he could get more information about his enigmatic roommate. Sebastian had crazy stories, and casually mentioned foreign locations. Yet, no one knew anything about his past. He was the most sexually open person at the school, and yet, emotionally he was a brick wall. Stuck in nowhere, Ohio, the Dalton boys loved the mystery and drama. The mystery made Sebastian popular, but it just frustrated Hunter. Finally, Sebastian’s dad spoke again. “And, Hunter? I know you are going to make fun of him for this later and then he’ll be mad at me, but take care of him ok? Take care of all of your friends. I went to West Point and into the army. When we were young, we thought army culture was about competition and macho-ness. Cooperation and kindness are more important. Sorry if that sounded preachy. Just take care of my kid.” 

“I will.” Hunter promised. “Really.”

“Thank you, Hunter Clarington.” The line went dead and Hunter stared at the phone. The last name discrepancy had made Hunter question the Zack Terry’s relationship to Sebastian, but now Hunter was sure the two were not blood related. There was no way the soft-spoken, pleading, Zach Terry had been involved in the creation of Sebastian Smythe. 

Hunter put down Sebastian’s phone and went to class. When he returned Sebastian was awake.

“Your father called earlier, you should call him back. He seemed nice.”

“You spoke to Zack?” 

“Is that a problem? Do you have a problem with your dad?”

“He’s not my dad. Don’t pick up my phone.” Sebastian said, then wrote _No answering each other’s phones_ on the rule poster. 

“What do you mean, he’s not your dad.”

Sebastian shrugged. “Wouldn’t you like to know. John, me, and some other guys are skipping class to go skinny dipping with girls they met last weekend, want to come?”

“Fine, but we have to be back at Dalton at five for practice,”

Sebastian grinned, “I knew we could train goody-two-shoes out of you.” 

“It is 4:30,” Hunter shouted toweling himself off,

“Yeah, so stop making out with your girlfriends,” Nick shouted to the boys hooking up with girls in the bushes. 

They had taken John’s car and met the girls at a trail leading into the woods to a deep river. They went swimming in their undergarments, which was not true skinny dipping but Hunter was learning Dalton boys basically did the PG version of everything. After a few hours of flirting, and two impromptu performances, a few of the Warblers had found girls to makeout with. The rest were playing a spirited game of King of the rock. Hunter had tried to get more information about Sebastian’s family, but Sebastian slipped out of serious conversations with a mindless ease. Four hours and Hunter had no new information except that Sebastian was incredibly good at skipping rocks, incredibly bad at Marco Polo, and dangerously competitive at king of the rock (they had to instate a no-drowning rule). Sebastian had hidden Nick’s clothes and Nick had pushed Sebastian’s clothes into the river in retribution, so Sebastian’s clothes were now drying on a tree.

Slowly the boys gathered at the trail head and toweled off, a few kissing the girls goodbye. Sebastian retrieved his wet clothes and whipped Nick with his wet t-shirt, “these are still soaked,”

Nick laughed at his predicament. Sebastian rolled his eyes, “You just want to spend more time with me shirtless,” 

Hunter pulled off his shirt and threw it at Sebastian. “No breaking up couples,” Sebastian pulled it on with a smirk.

“What couple are you talking about?” John teased. 

Sebastian handed Hunter his eye phone to carry as they walked back to the car, and whispered “I think you being shirtless is just as bad, maybe worse, on the sexual tension front,” 

“Unlike you, I’m not planning to flirt with anyone whilst half-naked,”

“You’re so Sandy-before-Danny-Zuko, it almost negates the natural hotness.”

Hunter pushed Sebastian’s phone into his pocket.

When they got back to Dalton, Hunter ran back to his dorm to grab a new shirt while Sebastian threw his uniform back on. “Have you called Zack yet?”

“Why do you even care Hunter?”

“I just.. I have no idea what your life is like outside of Dalton.”

Sebastian smirked, pulling his blazer over his shoulders, “You just hate that I have a leg up on you when it comes to familial information.”

“Everything isn’t a competition,” Hunter said, following Sebastian out of their dorm. But if Sebastian wanted to make this a competition, Hunter would play. And he still had Sebastian’s phone in his pocket.

  
After practice, Hunter found a secluded spot on campus and pulled out Sebastian’s phone. Hunter swore. iPhone 4s, less then a year old. Great. All the photos on it were less then a year old. It was all kept as tidy as Sebastian’s social media accounts. Hunter pulled up Sebastian’s contacts. Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson. Hunter didn’t want to call Sebastian’s father, he already knew Sebastian’s friends didn’t know anything, and his threesome thing with Blaine and Kurt sounded like the only relationship that lasted longer then a hookup. Hunter hesitated. This is more serious then curiosity or competition, he thought. Sebastian _flipped a desk_. He needed to get into Sebastian’s head. He dialed Kurt’s number. 

“Meerkat Attack?” A high-pitched voice answered, sounding dead serious,

“What?” Hunter asked. He had a plan for what he was going to say, but the plan dropped straight out of his mind with Kurt’s completely random statement.

“Um...”

“This is Hunter Clarington”

“Who?“

“I understand you were in a relationship with Sebastian Smythe. I need to know everything he told you about his family.”

“Why would I tell you anything?” Hunter could hear Kurt’s expression. But he had a plan for this question, Sebastian had told him Kurt was the more insecure one. Even after they all started hooking up, Kurt worried about him and Blaine.

“Tell me what you know and I’ll keep Sebastian away from Blaine,”

“No,” Kurt said, and the line went dead. 

Hunter called Kurt back. After two tries Kurt picked up,

“Look, I spent six months dealing with Sebastian. I don’t play these games. I am a pro at negotiating with underhanded bitches who have daddy issues, don’t even try.”

“I like him,” Hunter admitted, deciding he needed to try a different strategy,

“Oh, dear,” Kurt said apologetically,

“As a friend” Hunter specified

“How long has that lasted?”

“His dad is worried about him, yesterday he threatened a teacher for mentioning Argentine politics, and he hasn’t talked about his family once.” Hunter said, “I’m just worried about him,” Misconstruing intentions was not the same as lying, Hunter decided.

“He needs to tell you what’s going on himself.” Kurt said, “But I’m going to give you my number - I assume you have your own phone.” 

“Yeah,” Hunter pulled out his phone and typed in Kurt’s number,

“Everything - it’s complicated. Be patient. But if he does anything that seems odd, you need to tell me immediately, ok?”

“What do you mean by weird? Drinking more then usual?”

“It’s Sebastian, I don’t think there is enough alcohol in Lima for him to drink more then usual. But if he is sneaking things in or out of your room, if he seems angry, emotional, if he’s plotting something-“

“You’re not giving me much to work with. Those are all normal Sebastian behaviors,”

“Just-You’ll know it when you see it. If he is acting weird, call me. And be careful. Be very careful.”

“What do I need to be careful of?”

“Nothing. Probably. I need to go. Just have a heart to heart or something.” Kurt hung up and Hunter stared at his phone. That was the least illuminating conversation he had ever had. _Be careful_? Be careful of what Kurt? Hunter trod back to his dorm. Sebastian glared at him, “You have my phone,” Hunter tossed it back. It took Sebastian all of five seconds to realize Hunter had called Kurt,

“You called my ex-boyfriend. You snooped around my phone and called my ex-boyfriend.” 

“I needed somewhere to begin, Sebastian. I know nothing about your family. And Kurt didnt tell me anything anyways.”

“Ive only known you for three weeks, of course you know nothing about my familY! This is totally - you violated my privacy, my trust, and any friendship we had.”

“I’m sorry,”

“You’re sorry you didn’t get the information you wanted.”

“I can make it up to you. Call Mary Ann right now. Ten minutes, ask her anything you want.”

“I dont need to talk to your girlfriend Hunter. I already know everything I need to know about your family. Your mom and dad were highschool sweethearts. They had you really young, which might be why they thought marrying you off to Mary Ann at seventeen was a good idea. Your dad was in the military, worked his way up, ended up running courses at WHINSEC, better known as the SOA, or torture camp for future dictators.”

“So isn’t it fair I get to learn something about you?”

“I got all that information from Google and My Space. There is a reason you couldn’t find any information about my family. Stop searching and focus on getting into West Point, Sandy.”


	7. No going places without telling someone where you are going and when you will get back.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok long title, oops. Sebastian doesn’t answer his phone, forcing Hunter to decide how important Sebastian’s safety is to him.

It started with annoyed text. Hunter was upset Sebastian had left the window open on one of his escapades, and texted him a photo with the caption Forgot something? 

Sebastian hadn’t texted back and Hunter changed into his PJs, which were actually just his boxers. He laid down. He couldn’t go to sleep. Not until Sebastian texted back. 

Answer my texts. 

Hunter waited a few minutes,

Sebastian, now. 

Hunter sat up and called Sebastian, it went to voice mail. He called Sebastian again. He spent an hour looking over set lists and did his physics homework and then called Sebastian again. Nothing. Hunter called Jeff, “Hunter, dude wha-“

“Do you know where Sebastian is,”

“No...”

“Scandals,” Nick had grabbed the phone, “He said something about going to Scandals,” 

“Ok.” Hunter spent another hour calling Sebastian. Nothing. Then he spent twenty minutes bouncing a ball against the wall. He sighed, pulled himself out of bed, and grabbed his keys. He went out the window to avoid disturbing whoever was watching the floor that night. He called Mary Ann over his car’s Bluetooth while driving to Scandals. 

“It’s like... 4 am babe.”

“Yeah, sorry. It’s nothing.”

“No, what’s up. I’m always here babe,”

“Sebastian-“

“le méchant,”

“le méchant went out and he’s not answering his phone. So I’m going to go to a bar at 4 am and get in a fight with my roommate, who I am already in a fight with.”

“Better then waking up tomorrow and not knowing if you could have saved him.” Hunter felt his heart go cold at the idea. “Sorry, that was really serious just-“

“- some things are more important than others.” Hunter finished,

“Yeah.”

“Goodnight.”

“I love you.”

“You too.”

  
The club was buzzing. A guy tried to card Hunter when he walked in but Hunter walked right by to the bar where Sebastian was chatting up two guys. Hunter doubted Sebastian was planning to do anything with either, they weren’t pretty enough for him. Hunter grabbed him and roughly turned him around. 

“You weren’t answering your phone,” 

“It died,” Sebastian said turning back to the guys he had been chatting up. Hunter turned him around again,

“I was worried,”

“Good to know.” Sebastian turned back around and Hunter threw up his hands. 

“Unbelievable,” Hunter walked curtly out of the bar and jumped in his car. He didn’t see Sebastian turn around and watch him leave. 

As he fumbled with his keys Hunter heard a knock on his window. Sebastian. He rolled down his window and glared at Sebastian. “You’re a douche,”

“I just left my impending threesome to talk with you.” Sebastian replied, “Don't give me that, baby.” 

Hunter rolled his eyes, “You weren’t going to fuck either of those guys, and I don’t have anything to say to you except charge your phone next time,” 

“I might have been going to fuck one of those guys.”

“They’re not pretty enough for you.”

Sebastian smirked, “No one is really pretty enough for me. I mean, look at me.” He bit his lip, “I probably should have charged my phone.”

“Is that the closest to an apology I am going to get?” Hunter asked, smiling.

“Yeah. Pretty much.” Sebastian laughed, “Wanna go skinny dipping?” He nodded towards the bar, “I’m not really planning to fuck either of the lumberjack twins.” 

“If we go skinny dipping-“ Hunter started carefully. Sebastian already knew where he was going,

“I know, you have a fiancé. Whatever. Let’s just go as bros.”

Hunter laughed, “Bros helping bros? Yeah. Sure.” Hunter tapped his steering wheel, “I mean, we never got to do a 1 v 1 king of the rock so...”

“Prepare to get wrecked, West Point,”

Hunter pulled himself out of the river, spitting up water but victorious. He lied next to Sebastian, exhausted. He couldn’t remember the last time he had pulled an all-nighter, but his morning classes must be starting soon.

“You cheated, therefore, that game doesn’t count.” Sebastian said. His lawyer genes were shining through. Of course, Hunter had no idea if Zack was Sebastian’s real dad.

“You cheated too,” Hunter argued,

“I must have cheated less,”

“Because you lost?” Hunter laughed,

Sebastian shoved him, “Because I have more bruises. Our friends are going to think I had some really interesting sex.”

Hunter rolled his eyes. He stared at the stars above, the sky was getting lighter, the sun would rise soon and they would have to get back to campus.

“At Colorado Springs, we would go skinny dipping all the time.” Hunter said, “but we were in the middle of nowhere so it was always just us guys.”

Sebastian laughed, “That sounds super gay.” Hunter laughed too, nodding. Silence settled between them and Hunter said,

“This is good. What we have now, it’s good.”

“Is that your bro-y way of saying we shouldn’t try to be more then friends?” Sebastian asked, and Hunter shoved him back into the river.

When Hunter went to morning classes Sebastian charged his phone. 10 missed texts and 16 missed calls from Hunter. Sebastian smiled despite himself. 


	8. Three Short Chapters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wrote three short chapters and put them in one chapter.
> 
> 1\. Hunter tries to convince Sebastian to agree to his steroid scheme.
> 
> 2\. Sebastian breaks a lamp, Hunter finds an important secret Sebastian has been holding close to himself, and Sebastian tries to find something he can’t name yet, but he finds it.
> 
> 3\. Hunter makes a mistake, but it might help him learn more about Sebastian.

  
**No Steroids**

  
Hunter told him the idea quietly as they walked into the lunch room. Everyone had gotten used to ignoring the Captains discussion-arguments; the two intensely intelligent teens had a bad habit of sniping down the other’s opinions in a way that was... less-then-kind.

“Think about the type of choreography we could do if everyone had twice the strength.”

“No,” Sebastian said, grabbing noodles and chips. 

“Vocal Adrenaline uses them. We used them in Colorado Springs. It’s safe.” Hunter argued as they sat down with the other Warblers.

“I made a pact. No more bullying, blackmail, or assault this year. Sorry. “

“You made a pact with who?”

“Myself. The world. God. I don’t know who you make pacts with.” Sebastian said, picking at the school’s noodles. “These are not Venice quality,”

“Do you even believe in god?”

“Do I believe an imaginary, all-powerful figure is watching the world go to shit and doing nothing?” Sebastian asked rhetorically and a little too loud, everyone at the table shot him a look.

“Dude, super offensive.” Jeff pointed out. 

“I shouldn’t have asked.” Hunter said. Sebastian rolled his eyes at both of them. “I know things got out of hand last year. This year you don’t need to cheat. You just need to take orders. I am the captain of the Warblers -“ 

“ - Co-Captain - ” Sebastian interrupted

“-Captain. You just need to trust me.” The other Warblers were shooting eachother worried glances. They did not want a repeat of the sort of underhanded cheating that had happened the year before, and, while Hunter was more professional then Sebastian, he had Sebastian’s flaw.

Sebastian took a bite of noodles. Thought for a moment. “Just give me some time to like, talk to god or whatever the fuck indecisive people do.”

Hunter rolled his eyes, “Fine.” 

  
Hunter was anxious. 

Anxious because he felt like he needed to use steroids to succeed; at Colorado Springs he hadn’t done any competitions without them since middle school. 

Anxious because he wasn’t sure he wanted to go back on steroids; he didn’t have a saintly temper when he wasn't under their influence, but roid raging was another level of cooling down and regretting everything. 

Anxious because if he started taking he would have to stop taking them and that usually pushed him into a depressed, fatigued state. 

But mostly anxious because his dad would be at the competition and he was terrified of disappointing him.

  
**No Furniture Damage**

  
Sebastian came home more wasted then usual one night and managed to break Hunter’s lamp. Hunter couldn’t think of a punishment, so he waited until Sebastian was asleep and took his wallet. Hunter confiscated Sebastian’s fake ID and fifty dollars to cover the lamp. He smiled, looking over the other things in Sebastian’s wallet. Maybe the boy was more sentimental then Hunter had thought. He was carrying a small photo of a women and man posing giving a little girl and little boy a piggy-back ride in front of a pink palace. Hunter knew the boy must be Sebastian, and so it followed that it was a picture of Sebastian’s family. But Sebastian had never mentioned his mom or sister. The only family Sebastian had ever mentioned was Zack Terry, who he also said was not his father. And the man in the photo definitely was not Zack Terry. But Hunter had seen the pink palace, he just couldn’t ID it. 

“Give it back.” Sebastian said, groggy, from his bed. And Hunter realized tears were streaming down his face. Hunter put the photo back in Sebastian’s wallet and placed it on Sebastian’s night stand. He sat down on Sebastian bed and pulled the boy’s head into his lap. He wiped the other teen’s tears away. “You can’t keep coming home this wasted.” Sebastian fell asleep like that. Hunter noticed Sebastian was sleeping with his shirt. The one Hunter had thrown at him their first day in the dorm when he had posted the list of rules. Hunter sighed, that was not a good sign; he had told Sebastian not to fall in love with him. But it was kind of sweet. 

The photo: <https://photos.app.goo.gl/BjEY39o9em3TKRUe9>

To Kurt:  
 _Just tell me if Zack is his dad or not._

From Kurt:  
 _Are you curious or actually worried?_

To Kurt:  
 _He hasn’t been acting “weird” if that’s what you want to know._

From Kurt:  
 _I know it’s hard to be patient. But it’s better if you learn at his speed._

Kurt was being just as useless as usual Hunter sighed silencing his phone as class began.

Sebastian woke up with a booming headache, and a hazy memory (that might have been a dream) of Hunter whispering nice things to him - well, concerned things, but that was the closest Hunter got to nice. 

Hunter had left the room for class. Sebastian locked the door of their dorm and and closed the blinds. He carefully investigated Hunter’s side of the room, putting everything back where he found it. He was aware he was committing the same type of privacy violation he had just gotten mad at Hunter for A week before. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but he has to find something so he could know. Know something. Know who Hunter was and who he was going to be. Sebastian felt he might be falling in love with the boy. He finally found it. A chest underneath Hunter’s bed. Small, wooden, and ornate. Sebastian put it on Hunter’s bed and stared at it. He should just open it. It had no lock. Sebastian pulled his own chest from beneath his bed. He removed the lockbox with the gun in it and slid the lockbox under his bed, out of sight. He paced between the two chests. He just couldn’t open Hunter’s chest without the other boy’s consent, not knowing what was in his own. He considered a trade. If Hunter showed Sebastian his own chest, he could look in Sebastian’s. Sebastian instantly shot down his own idea, nothing Hunter had in his own chest were worth Sebastian’s secrets. 

When Hunter returned to their room, both chests had been returned to their original locations. Sebastian was lying in his bed.

“Where are you going to college?” Sebastian asked, he sounded tired. 

“Where do you think.” Hunter shot back.

“West Point?” 

“Yeah. Military service is a tradition in my family. Why? Are you...um”

“What?”

“...Like... anti-military. I know the US military does bad things and -“

“Stop talking.” Sebastion looked up at the ceiling and said, mostly to himself, “You’re the worst type, because you know exactly what they do and you want to be a part of it. Lead.”

Hunter had no fucking clue how he was supposed to respond to that. If he argued, would he learn more about Sebastian or just be locked out? He had no fucking clue.

**No Sebastian Damage**

  
Sebastian had unscrewed their door from the wall so it fell on Hunter when he entered the bathroom for his 7:30 am shower (which he took every day after 30 minutes of yoga). Sebastian watched the prank half-asleep. He had only gotten back from a night at Scandals two hours before and was incredibly tired. He was also only clad in boxers.

Hunter dragged him out of bed and dropped him on the floor. He only fell like two feet, but still. “Sebastian, fix. the. door.” Hunter demanded, standing over him.

“It’s like...It’s like...morning and I’m tired” Sebastian murmured, turning over. Hunter smiled, getting a brilliant idea. He came back with a cup of ice cold water and slowly poured it over Sebastian’s back. Sebastian turned over with a pained look, somewhere between laughing and grimacing. “Let me sleep, I’ll fix it later.” Hunter sat on his chest and slowly poured the water down his forehead, the arch of his nose, his mouth. The change was instantaneous. Sebastian was laughing and then he was panicking. He shoved Hunter off and pulled himself to his feet breathing hard. Hunter stepped forward, “Stay away you fucking bastard,” Sebastian shouted, turning towards the window in their small room. He was leaning over his desk breathing hard. Everything was dizzy, swimming. He pounded the desk. He couldn’t breath. Hunter didn’t dare move. 

They stood like that for an impossible amount of time. Then Sebastian started crying, burying his head in his arms. Hunter stepped forward, but Sebastian stopped him, “Don’t.”

Finally, Sebastian turned around to face Hunter with red eyes. He regarded Hunter with a nasty look and Hunter braced himself because he knew when Sebastian was scared, he was mean. 

“Where did you learn that?

“What?” Hunter said seriously, “It-“ _was a joke_ Hunter thought. But his thoughts died with Sebastian’s next word.

“Waterboarding,”

Hunter stared at him for a moment. “You are drunk, and you need sleep.” 

Sebastian glared at him before slipping into bed and almost immediately falling asleep. Hunter checked his watch. He had to get to 8:00 am class. He did not focus in class, at all. His mind kept flashing back to when he was 13 and read through his father’s classified files. His dad worked at WHINSEC (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), the “torture academy” for Latin American armies. So Hunter had spent days absorbing information about torture until he had become too disgusted to keep reading. Had he somehow subconsciously copied a torture tactic on Sebastian? No. It wasn’t possible. It was a prank. Just a stupid prank. But maybe it wasn’t. He couldn’t really know if his actions that morning had to do with the files on water boarding he had read four years before; but he did know Sebastian’s reaction must have had something to do with torture. How did his party-boy Vice Captain know about government torture tactics?

“I was drunk, and tired, I have no idea what I said or what I was thinking, I was probably just trying to get out of fixing the door, I got confused, it was a crazy night,” Sebastian was awake and already explaining himself when Hunter returned from class. He was sat up in bed, hugging Hunter’s army green shirt with Mr. Puss asleep in his lap.

“Actually,” Hunter said carefully, “You might have been right. When I was a kid, I read through my dad’s files. He works at WHINSEC,” Hunter watched Sebastian’s face for any sign he understood what Hunter was talking about. Sebastian definitely knew about WHINSEC, because he glowered when he heard the word. “I might have subconsciously copied...” Hunter trailed off.

“I bet you could torture Afghan prisoners in your sleep, you’re such a good army boy.” Sebastian said, his voice a whole different type of cold.

“Give me my shirt back.” Hunter said, suddenly upset at Sebastian and not knowing whether his anger was misplaced or not.  
  
Sebastian laid down, careful not to disturb Mr. Puss and held Hunter’s shirt to his head, breathing it in. He looked at Hunter, dead honest for a change, and said, quietly, “It makes me feel safe, because it smells like you. And so even when I want to be safe from you, I reach for it.” He looked straight into Hunter’s eyes to make sure he understood, “Even when you scare me, I reach for you.” He sounded devastated. Hunter felt devastated. Like a brick in his stomach, sharp edges biting at his ribcage.

  
Hunter fixed the door and hot glued the bolts in. He told Sebastian later, in the dining hall, they should talk about what happened more and Sebastian had made a very loud joke about negotiating kink. #Huntbastian had already been trending on the unofficial school page, but in reference to the Captains’ daily fights at choir practice; now it was a ship name. Hunter ignored it all and added another rule to his rule chart: No Breaking Sebastian. Guests at the #Huntbastion dorm could interpret it any way they wanted.


	9. Never Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok. Hunter analyzes literature and my foreign affairs geekiness really comes through. Don’t worry if politics isn’t your forte - the next chapter focuses on country music! Also in thes chapter: Sebastian gets hurt and Hunter has to decide how far he is willing to go to pursue answers about Sebastian’s past. Also comment with any questions or predictions (or if you want any random factoids about Pablo Neruda / Argentine writers)! As always, thanks for reading.

  
Sebastian was attempting and failing to read Los Diarios de Motocicleta when Hunter realized what the pink castle was. Los Diarios de Motocicleta was about Che Guevara, an Argentine-born revolutionary. It wasn’t a castle, it was the Casa Rosada. Argentina’s White House. 

Hunter got up and methodological scanned Sebastian’s library, looking for more Spanish titles:

 **Tercera Residencia by Pablo Neruda.** Pablo Neruda was Chilean, but Hunter knew he had spent some time in Argentina after being exiled from Chile under Videla. Tercera Residencia was the first collection of poems he wrote that were political - he was a Communist. Significant? Maybe.

 **Respiración Artificial by Ricardo Piglia.** An Argentine novel focused on politics and literary theory. Hunter highly doubted Sebastian could read any of it if he couldn’t get through Los Diarios de Motocicleta.

 **La Fiesta Del Chivo by Peruvian Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa**. The book portrays the assassination of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. Hunter didn't know much about the book or Llosa beyond that, but he didn’t think there was any direct connection to Argentina. 

**One Hundred Years of Solitude and Don Quixote.** Two long classics Hunter had never seen Sebastian touch once. 

**Eva Luna, Ines of My Soul, and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende**. She was a Chilean-American writer. Isabel Allende is also considered a must-read Magical Realism writer so Sebastian might have had those books to look smart and cultured. That was why he did most things. 

Hunter smiled, thinking about how Sebastian ordered Courvoisier with his coffee, and drank a cup of red wine in the morning because “in Paris it is common knowledge a cup of wine a day helps you live longer.” Sebastian, who suggested random Italian opera songs when the Warblers were talking too much about whatever broadway show, just so he could say “when I saw _____ at le Palais Garnie, it was fantastic. American theatre is just no competition.”  
  
**Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig** , Hunter knew there was a broadway play based on it. He had no idea what it was about or where Puig was from. Sebastian tended to hold Broadway in contempt, so the book must have been in some way individually interesting.

 **Santa Evita by Tomas Eloy Martinez.** Hunter assumed it was about Evita Perón, so another Argentine book. Trent had once sang Don’t Cry For Me Argentina and Sebastian cut him down with a sharp tongue. But Sebastian had a bad habit of being too harsh. Hunter kind of had that habit too.

 **Viaje Olvidado by Silvina Ocampo**. Hunter had no idea who she was.

**Como En La Guerra by Luisa Valenzuela**

**La Invención de Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares**

**Operación Masacre by Rodolfo Walsh**

**Gracias por El Fuego by Mario Benedetti**

**El Turno del Ofendido by Roque Dalton**

**Mundar by Juan Gelman**

**Mascaró, el Cazador Americano by Haroldo Conti**

The titles went on. Hunter’s knowledge of Spanish literature was not as deep as he had thought, he recognized few names. The whole thing was ridiculous. Maybe Sebastian’s family had gone to Buenos Aires on vacation. Maybe they were deeply involved in Argentine politics. Either way, he wasn't going to figure out anything psychoanalyzing Sebastian’s bookshelf. But Hunter’s eyes widened when he saw the last book on Sebastian’s shelf.

**Nunca Mas [Never Again] : A Report.**

The book was slim, so Hunter hadn’t noticed it before. Sebastian had been ignoring Hunter, but looked up when Hunter pulled Nunca Mas off the shelf. He stared at the book, the report, in Hunter’s hands,

“From the moment of their abduction, the victims lost all rights. Deprived of all communication with the outside world, held in unknown places, subjected to barbaric tortures, kept ignorant of their immediate or ultimate fate, they risked being either thrown into a river or the sea, weighted down with blocks of cement, or burned to ashes. They were not mere objects, however, and still possessed all the human attributes: they could feel pain, could remember a mother, child or spouse, could feel infinite shame at being raped in public.”

Sebastian recited a translated paragraph from the report’s prologue off the top of his head, almost without thinking. He wanted Hunter to know. He wanted Hunter to read the report and see what the United States had used its military and economic might to do. So he recited the paragraph and then he threw down Los Diarios de Motocicleta, grabbed a physics textbook, and went to the library before Hunter could ask any questions. 

Hunter knew in 1976 a US supported military junta overthrew Argentina’s corrupt Peronist democracy. The junta became more and more brutal, eventually, trying to kill every single leftist in Argentina. One of the leaders said, “A terrorist is not just someone with a gun or a bomb, but also someone who spreads ideas that are contrary to Western and Christian civilization.” At the time, that thinking was in line with the United States’ opinion, US support for the dictatorship continued.

Hundreds of children were stolen from their mothers as babies and raised in military families. Anywhere between 10,000 and 30,000 people were disappeared. The junta set up 320 concentration camps to torture and murder its own civilians. 

Hunter knew the CIA directly worked with the military dictatorship’s leaders; he assumed they had tried to limit human rights abuses. He knew the US gave over fifty million dollars in military aid to the junta each year. 

When democracy was restored in 1983, the Commission on Disappeared People was formed to investigate the junta’s crimes. The report it produced, Nunca Mas, was the best selling book in Argentina in 1984. The Argentine government, though technically democratic, was heavily influenced by the military; no one involved in the Junta was thrown in jail until 2005, when the Supreme Court of Argentina declared laws protecting military officers from legal action were unconstitutional. Between 2006 and 2011, 259 Argentinians involved in the military junta were charged with genocide or crimes against humanity. But the trials were fraught; witnesses were killed, judges were threatened, evidence disappeared. 

Hunter had never read the report. He didn’t know why Sebastian had it. He opened the cover and saw a note had been scrawled on the front cover. 

_Cariños,_

_I hope you read this and understand the choices I made. And I hope you can forgive the choices others made. I believe that it is likely when you read this, i will be unable to be with you. This report is hard to read and there are a million things I want you to keep in mind as you read it. Nobody is evil. People do evil things. So save some forgiveness for your family and nation. If I were with you, I would hug you and say I love you. I love you. I love you. Siempre. Siempre. Siempre._

  
After a few hours of studying, Sebastian found some seniors on the lacrosse team and convinced them to break out a pack of Coronas. This turned into a small dorm party in an all-senior hall, where supervision was much less stringent then in underclassmen dorms. He didn’t return to his dorm until 2 am. He quietly opened the door, hoping not to disturb Hunter. A lamp suddenly turned on. Sebastian jumped. Hunter had been sitting in the dark, waiting for him.

“Hello, West Point. Is whatever this is going to take long?” Sebastian said, his voice dripping with mocking sarcasm (as if he wasn't planning to do the same exact thing the next time he wanted to confront Hunter)

Hunter jumped up and shut the door, then turned to Sebastian, “Who gave you Nunca Mas?”

Sebastian sat on his bed, how to handle an overly curious roomate? He decided to tell the truth as nonchalantly as possible, “My mom. She gave me most of these old, musty books. Had a thing for Spanish literature, I guess.” 

Hunter opened Nunca Mas and placed it on Sebastian’s lap. “Read the note.” He ordered. _Fuck_. Sebastian shut the book.

“What are you trying to do here Hunter?” 

“She was in danger right?”

Sebastian shoved Nunca Mas into Hunter’s chest. “Well I’m not. Goodnight.” Hunter nodded to himself. He carefully put the book back on the shelf, turned the lights off, laid down. 

“Goodnight.” And then, quieter, Hunter said, “You know you’re not alone.” Sebastian didn’t reply for a few moments. When he did his voice was mean and sarcastic.

“At that little military school of yours, what did they teach you about Argentina? Did they tell you how the leaders of the CIA helped their Argentine buddies commit a genocide? Every terror tactic used in Argentina was taught in SOA courses. The US knew about and supported and helped with every disappearance, every assassination. ”

“We learned about some of that. We learned the US supported regimes during the Cold War that we probably shouldn’t have.”

Sebastian scoffed, “You don't know anything. You have no fucking idea what you’re dealing with here, so get your hokey, army-boy nose out of it.

  
“Hey, it’s me.” 

“To what do I owe this pleasure, Hunter?” Kurt said, answering the phone.

“It just feel like it’s one step forward, two steps back. And I am pretty sure he’s only told me what he has because he wants to fuck me.”

“Don’t fuck him. You’re going to really really want to-“

“I’m not gay. I’m not even bi-curious.” Hunter said, defensively.

“Right.” Kurt said, tone more disbelieving then he had meant it.

“I have a fiancé.” Kurt felt a pang of hurt at those words. He really thought he would marry Blaine someday. 

“Oh. Well good. Then you definitely won't sleep with him because what sort of terrible person would cheat on someone they love, even if that person is far away and may be acting a little distant...”

“Are you ok?” Hunter said, hearing Kurt breakdown over the phone, and trying to get the conversation back on track.

“Yeah. Sorry. Blaine and I broke up. He cheated on me. With some random facebook friend. Like I was nothing.”

Hunter pulled out a pen and paper. Kurt might be an ally but he would take free information on one of the One Direction’s stars any day, “I’m sorry. Tell me everything.” 

“...And I thought I was going to be with him forever, you know. And it will never be the same. I don’t know if I should move on or wait for this to feel better. I just dont think I can look at him the same way...” Hunter drummed his fingers on his desk. Kurt was crying. Time to get this conversation back on track.

“I would never cheat on Mary Ann.”

Kurt sniffled, “Yeah just. You seem pretty obsessed with Sebastian’s back story, don't screw up your relationship.” 

“You’re right. Sebastian isn’t in danger. I don't need blackmail on him. I need to let this go.”

“Wait. Blackmail? Hunter Clarington do not hang up on me-

  
Hunter came back from class and Sebastian headed out to his. Sebastian was at Warbler practice. Sebastian was at dinner. Then he disappeared. Hunter didn’t think anything of it when he woke up Saturday morning and Sebastian wasn’t in the room. He shot Sebastian a text and grabbed breakfast. When evening fell and no one had seen Sebastian, Hunter got worried. He went to the headmaster, who informed him Sebastian had been officially taken off campus by a guardian. Hunter called Zack as he walked back to his dorm.

“Hello?” Zack answered the phone,

“This is Hunter Clarington,”

“Oh. Hi, Hunter. Is everything ok?

“Sebastian’s with you right?”

“I’m in France.”

“So?”

“No, he’s not with me. Why?”

Well he hasn’t been on campus since yesterday and the headmaster just told me he is off campus with a guardian. 

“Oh, yeah.” Zack blurted, “Um... he’s off campus with a uncle. Totally forgot. Don't worry about it.” 

“Ok. Sorry to bother you.” Hunter hung up the phone, more worried then when the conversation started. He knew what making up a lie on the fly sounded like.

  
Hunter texted the Warbler group chat, asking if anyone had seen Sebastian . They met in the lounge to exchange notes, and found no one had any idea where he was. Some of the guys got pretty nervous since Sebastian didn’t usually go on radio silence for more then one night. Others were less worried.

“Watch him show up tomorrow with stories of a Roman style Orgy.” John shouted. Everyone laughed weakly. 

“Get some sleep,” Hunter said, checking his watch. “We need to keep everyone’s circadian rhythm healthy.”

“God forbid our friend going missing screws with our Circadian rhythm.” Jeff muttered as Nick pulled him away.

Hunter face timed Mary Ann for an hour, fucking up his own Circadian rhythm. “On one hand, I know of a few weekends when Sebastian has disappeared, but he always answers his phone.” Hunter said, worried.

And then he came back. Hunter woke up Sunday morning and, like a miracle, Sebastian was asleep in the bed beside him. Hunter texted Mary Ann, 

_He’s back._

_Just like that?_

_Just like that._

  
Sebastian came to lunch and regaled the table with reports of a roman style orgy and it seemed to all the world like he had just had a wild night and morning. It wasn't until that night Hunter saw bruises ringing Sebastian’s neck. Sebastian took off his blazer and Hunter saw them peaking above his collar. Hunter shut the door. “Take off your shirt.”

“I didn’t expect you too be so forward, West Point.”

“I’m not playing Sebastian.”

Hunter expected a few more sex jokes, but Sebastian just laid down on his bed and broke down. “It was a mistake. I swear to god it won't happen again.” Hunter helped him pull off his shirt, breath catching at the tapestry of bruises.

“None of this was your fault.” Hunter whispered close to his ear. “I’m going to kill who ever did this.”

He laid next to him and pulled him into his chest, deciding questions could wait. The next day he woke up next to Sebastian and carefully untangled himself from the slumbering boy. He made sure Sebastian was asleep and called Kurt.

“Why did you say I shouldn’t sleep with him.”

“Why hello Hunter. How am I doing? I’m doing great, thanks for asking. Still pretty upset about the boyfriend troubles but generally having a good time in New York City, how are you doing?”

“There is a ring of bruises around my star singer’s neck” Hunter growled, “So Sebastian’s personal life has officially become my business again.”

“What!? Who did that?”

“I don’t know. Has this ever happened before?”

“No.” Kurt replied “If Sebastian was in any sort of danger that I knew about, I would have told you. I said you shouldn’t sleep with him because Sebastian uses sex to manipulate people - bring them closer and push them away - without meaningful communication. Me and Blaine got nowhere with Sebastian until we realized he doesn’t see sex as intimacy, so we couldn't use sex to earn his trust. Do you know anything about what happened?”

“I called Zack Terry, and he said Sebastian was off-campus with an uncle, but I think he was lying.”

“Zack Terry loves Sebastian. You don’t know how much yet. But...”

“But what?”

“Nothing. Sebastian probably just talked him into covering. He’s very persuasive.”

“So I’ve heard. Kurt, is there any chance Zack is involved?”

“I dont think Zack would hurt Sebastian, but Zack is he of those guys that is Ok with other people’s kids being gay but not his own.”

“Sebastian isn’t really his kid.”

“Exactly, so all he can be is disapproving. But if Sebastian got hurt by some guy he was with, Zack might not be as understanding as we are.”

“Ok, thanks.”

“If you can’t get him to tell you what happened, have him call me.”

Hunter hung up. And called his dad.

“Hello son. Do you need more juice?” His dad said immediately, never one for small talk.

“No, I’m still working on getting them to accept the plan.” Hunter said, with the drama he had almost forgot about the steroid plan.

“Well work faster. Sectionals is approaching.”

“I won’t let you down. I swear. Can you do me a favor? I need you to look into a guy. Ex-CIA. Zack Terry.”

“You want me to pull his classified file?” Hunter’s dad said with an arched eyebrow “Is there a reason? Because it would have to be a really good reason.”

Hunter bit his lip and lied, “I need blackmail on the former captain of the Warblers. Make sure he doesn’t report to the police to get back at me for taking his place.”

“Ok. I’ll call you when I have the file,” Hunter’s dad hung up. 

Sebastian was up when Hunter returned to the room.

“You need to tell me the truth, now. Not all of it. But enough that I can help you,” Hunter sat down beside Sebastian, who laughed bitterly, tears peaking out from his eyes,

“This has nothing to do with anything Hunter. I wanted money and this guy on Craigslist said he’d pay for it. It was my fault.”

“Hey. I promise this was not your fault,” Hunter said. 

“I met him at his motel, alone,”

Hunter pinched the ridge of his nose, and filed away not street-smart in his mental Sebastian file, “Jesus Sebastian. But still not your fault.”

“And then he was like “Whatever you want kid, wherever you want to go, I can get it, we can go there.” And I realized he was definitely a human trafficker,” Sebastian laughed a little. Hunter knew a little bit about trauma and knew that this was good. It was good when people could re-tell a trauma without reliving the fear. “So I tried to leave. And then, all this happened.” Sebastian said motioning to his body. “He took what he wanted.” Sebastian started crying again, “And he let me leave. I think he assumed I would be too ashamed to tell anyone. That was Saturday morning.” Hunter waited for him to calm down.

“And then what happened?”

“And then I called Zack and told him I met a guy at a bar and he raped me. And Zack told me to get back to campus and stop looking for trouble at bars. So I got ice cream.”

“You got ice cream?” Hunter asked

“Yeah.”

“What type?”

“Chocolate pistachio.” Sebastian said, smiling.

“Ok. None of this is your fault. First, you need to talk to a doctor and then a therapist. And then you need to go to the police so we can make sure that sicko doesn’t hurt anyone else.”

“I just want it to be over.” Sebastian punched his pillow, “I’m so fucking stupid.”

“Don’t say that. You are definitely the smartest sidekick I have ever had,” Hunter said, “Including Mr. Puss.” 

Sebastian laughed and hit him with a pillow,

“Sidekick? You fucking wish.”


	10. No Country Music

Three weeks. It took three weeks for Hunter’s dad to access Zack Terry’s file and send it to Hunter. And now Hunter had it, sitting on his computer, and he couldn’t decide whether to open it or not. He pulled out his guitar and tried thrumming a few notes of a Tim McGraw song. Their dorm room door flew open and Sebastian walked in with panache,  
  
“I caught you.”

“What could you possibly mean, Sebastian,” 

“You like country music.”

Hunter rolled his eye, “I’m from Georgia, of course I like country music.”

“You’re from Georgia? Since when?”

“What do you mean since when? Since I was born.”

Sebastian thought for a moment, pacing in the three foot space that separated their beds. “Come out with me tonight, to Scandals,”

“I don’t drink, and I’m not gay,”

“When you stuffed your hand down my pants you seemed pretty gay. Hunter, it’s country night. And if I have to listen to one more wannabe Garth Brooks slowly strum some casually sexist tune from the swamps of Indiana, I am going to gouge out my own ear drums.”

  
Somehow Hunter ended up in the passenger side of Sebastian’s car, dressed down for clubbing, trying to stop Sebastian from getting too distracted to drive.

“She sounds like a background singer on Alvin and the Chipmunks.”

“Carly Rea Jepson isn’t that bad. Eyes. On. The. Road. Sebastian. And we could win Nationals with one of her songs. Judges like upbeat.” Sebastian gave him a disbelieving look and they swerved off the road. Hunter grabbed the wheel and yanked them back on to the road. “Seriously. Sebastian, focus.”

Sebastian smirked and then swerved a little as a joke.

“I will beat your ass. Stay on the road.”

“Wuss,”

At Scandals, they grabbed seats at the bar. Sebastian bought himself a beer and offered one to Hunter. 

“Someone needs to drive.” Hunter said refusing it, “I really hope you don’t drink and drive.” Sebastian scoffed. “Do you give a fuck about staying alive?” Hunter asked. 

“That’s the point of being young Hunter, not caring.” Sebastian said with a dangerous grin, he motioned to a guy dancing to a pretty terrible rendition of Daddy’s Money, “Bet you I can get that guy to kiss me by the end of this song.”

“Sebastian, don’t.” Hunter said, but Sebastian was already walking over to him.

Sebastian walked confidently up to the guy and grinded against him. The guy turned around and Sebastian led him backwards to the bar, whispering in his ear. Sebastian perched himself on a bar stool and took a swig of beer. The guy was practically sitting on his lap. He saw Sebastian send him a sneaky look. Hunter just shook his head. Sebastian kissed the guys neck and let his lips linger near the man’s. Hunter decided to step in before Sebastian made good on his bet. He walked over and grabbed Sebastian’s neck roughly. The man took a step back so he was at a more appropriate distance. Sebastian sighed and turned to Hunter like what’s your problem? At that moment the song ended and Sebastian pushed Hunter towards the stage shouting, “He’ll sing next.” Hunter shot him a look but jumped up on stage. 

The man sat next to Sebastian after ordering a beer, “Who’s he? Friend? _Boyfriend_?”

Sebastian scoffed, “More like my babysitter.” Sebastian looked him up and down flirtatiously, “Not that I need one.” 

“Y’all want something fast or slow?” Hunter shouted, slipping some southern twang into his words. He didn't miss the way Sebastian smiled, hearing the subtle accent. Hunter never actually developed an accent growing up in Georgia, in the south it isn’t cool to have a southern accent, at least not where he lived. But he learned to fake one pretty well to impress girls in Colorado.

Someone shouted, “Something fast” and Hunter told the band the song he wanted them to play.

  
_Mercy look what just walked through that door_

_Well hello T-R-O-U-B-L-E_  
_Tell me what in the world_  
_You doin' A-L-O-N-E_  
_Yeah say hey good L double O-K-I-N-G_  
_Well I smell T-R-O-U-B-L-E_

Sebastian grinned, watching him perform. Then he turned back to the guy he was chatting up. “Wanna dance,”

The man shot a worried look at Hunter, who was sending killer looks his way, but whispered “Don’t ‘ave to ask me twice,” And Sebastian pulled him out onto the dance floor.

_Cause mama never told me 'bout nothin' like Y-O-U_  
_Bet your mama musta been another good lookin' honey too_  
_Hey good L double O-K-I-N-G_  
_Well I smell T-R-O-U-B-L-E_

Hunter didn't understand how Sebastian had learned literally nothing from three weeks before. He and the guy he was dancing with drifted towards a corner. Hunter didn't even know the guy’s name. Probably Chad. He looked like a Chad. The type of guy who liked bad country music and came to bars looking for one thing only. Why did Sebastian do this? What did he think he was going to find in some young, dumb, uncultured, lower-class, lumberjack Scandals hook up? Sex, his brain helpfully supplied. But Hunter had agreed to come to Scandals, so he tried to focus on singing and not send too many angry glances towards Sebastian and Chad.

  
_Cause the world ain't ready for nothing like Y-O-you_  
_I bet your mama musta been another good lookin' mama too_  
_Hey say hey good L double O-K-I-N-G_  
_Well I smell T-R-O-U-B-L-E_

As Hunter thrummed out the last chords of the song Sebastian and Chad were making out. _Great_. 

Y’all Want something fast or something slow? Sebastian didnt even come up for air to acknowledge Hunter’s understated Georgia twang. People threw out a few suggestions, but Hunter had already chosen a song. 

  
_When he calls you_  
_You don't have to answer right away_  
_Make him wait_  
_And when he small talks_  
_Before he asks you on a date_  
_Make him wait_

Chad pulled Sebastian back onto the dance floor to slow dance. They had stopped making out, so Hunter took the win. Sebastian sent him a death glare as he swayed in Chad’s arms. 

_When his Pontiac's in the driveway_  
_And his eyes are midnight blue_  
_Take a deep breath_  
_Do the opposite of what you wanna do_

Sebastian tried to start kissing Chad again but Chad, probably noticing Hunter’s death stares, stopped him, whispering “Let’s take a breather kid,” They started drifting towards the bar.

_Make him wait_  
_By the phone_  
_At the door to meet your dad_  
_Before the first kiss, he's gotta hold your hand_  
_You can't get it back when you give yourself away_  
_A boy's gonna run but a real man's gonna stay_  
_Ohhh, make him wait_  
_Make him wait_

Sebastian and Chad sat down at the bar. Sebastian fixed him with a determined look, “Let’s get out of here, c’mon, there’s so much fun we can have together.” He surged forward to kiss Chad but Chad pulled away, laughing a little at Sebastian’s intensity. Hunter thrummed the last chords of the song.

And realize it was worth the while  
To make him wait  
Make him wait

Chad took a swig of beer and stood, telling Sebastian, “That guy who’s not your boyfriend spent that entire song looking at me like he wants to murder me, and he just stopped singing so... good luck with that.” He walked away and Hunter jumped off the stage and walked up to Sebastian who looked about 500x angrier then he should. But drama was Sebastian’s main form of communication other then bitchy comebacks.

“I don’t know why you think you have the right to sing some preachy song at me, but let’s get a few things straight: you are not my boyfriend, you are not my parent, and you are being a self-righteous asshole.” 

Hunter could barely hear himself think and someone spilled beer on his shoes in the bustling bar. He grabbed Sebastian’s arm and pulled him towards a back exit, “Come with me.” They broke out into the warm September evening. 

Sebastian was still angry, “I was gonna get laid. You owe me a blow job.” He gave Hunter a once over. “And hey...”

Hunter shook his head, “What was your plan with that guy? Fuck in the bathroom?” 

“Funny, I seem to recall you having a fiancé so I don’t see how who or where I fuck concerns you in any way,”

“I can care about you without wanting to have sex with you.” Hunter said, “And you were just flirting with that guy to make me jealous,”

Sebastian rolled his eyes, “Even if I was trying to make you jealous, and I wasn’t, it shouldn’t have worked since you are, as you love to remind everyone, constantly, ‘Not even remotely bi-curious.’ Yet here we are.”

Hunter looked down, “This isn’t about me,”

“You’re right, It’s not.” Sebastian turned to return to the bar,

“Did you even like him?” Hunter asked, grabbing Sebastian’s arm. “And even if you did, the age of consent in Ohio is seventeen. You are _barely_ sixteen,” Hunter reminded Sebastian, emphasis barely. 

“Age is but a number.” Sebastian said in a flippant tone with a vague gesture to the air.

“And a jail cell is just a room.” Hunter shot back, giving him a look, “Statutory rape charges aren’t something you play Russian Roulette with.” Sebastian rolled his eyes and started turning away. Hunter grabbed his shoulders to get his attention, “Sebastian look at me. You want to get some? Fine. I don't care,”

“You certainly sound like you don't care”

“I don’t care. If you want to get some, there are plenty of horny gay teen boys at Dalton. You are going to fuck one of these losers and get hurt. Again.”

Sebastian looked down, “We dont have to talk about what happened three weeks ago ever again.”

“Maybe we should. Or maybe we shouldn’t. I don’t know with you.” Hunter through his hands up and sat on the edge of the sidewalk. “I just don’t know with you” Sebastian sat beside him, their legs pressing together. “You’re right. I have no right to scare off your hookups, no matter how trashy they are,” Hunter let his nails scrape across the pavement. He wrapped an arm around Sebastian’s shoulder, pulling him closer,

“You can keep apologizing.” Sebastian said, and Hunter could feel him smile, his mouth pressed to Hunter’s shoulder. 

“Admit you were flirting with that guy to annoy me.”

“Admit it worked.”

“Admit if I fucked you, you would wake up, forget my name, stop flirting, and never give me another glance”

“I would definitely give you another glance, you look like the love child of Captain America and Superman.” Hunter scoffed and pulled his arm off Sebastian’s shoulder. “Are you really so dependent on my flirting?”

Hunter smiled playfully, “Addicted,”

“Admit if you didn’t have a fiancé, we would have fucked your first week at Dalton.” 

Hunter looked him straight in the eyes, “Admit you’re glad we didn’t.”

Sebastian turned away with a wry smile. “Admit you get off on acting like a creepy paternal drill sergeant.”

“Admit if you were Captain this year, either Dalton would be a heap of ashes, you would be in jail, or both.”

Sebastian shook his head, laughing. “Admit you like boy bands.”

“Admit you like country.” Hunter shot back.

Apparently, that claim crossed a line, “I do not.” Sebastian said. Hunter grabbed Sebastian’s phone from his pocket. “Give it back!” Sebastian said reaching for the phone. Hunter let him grab it back. Sebastian looked down at his phone for a beat too long.

“You have country songs downloaded, don’t you!”

Sebastian pulled one up. He looked nervous so Hunter resisted making fun of him, instead letting silence fill the space.

Sebastian pressed play and turned so he was singing the song straight to Hunter.

  
_Are you tryna be someone for someone?_  
_'Cause you remind me of where I come from_  
_So boy, I know it's kinda soon_  
_But I'll tell you what I wanna do_

_I wanna take you home_  
_And I’m not talking about a two mile ride back to my place_  
_Oh, this isn’t the same old song about two hearts hooking up_  
_One and done, on a Friday_  
_No no, I’m talking about a map-dot town, nobody knows_  
_That'll tell you everything you need to know_  
_About me and why I talk like I do and why I'm falling for you_  
_And why I take it slow_  
_I wanna take you ho-o-ome_  
_Yeah, I wanna take you home_

_My papa would a hated you_  
_He'd probably a talked your ears off_  
_Drive you by the little church_  
_That saved me when I got lost_  
_Take you down roads that I grew up on_  
_Wish on those stars that I used to wish on_  
_Kiss you on the bleachers on the soccer field_  
_Boy, you know I..._  


  
Sebastian paused the music

“I want to take you home. So I can tell you about me, and why I act like I do. And why I’m falling for you. And why there’s so much you don’t know. Get it? I wanna take you home.”

“Sebastian, what happened to your parents?” Hunter asked, somehow knowing now was the right time.

“They were murdered. When I was eleven. Five years ago. In Argentina.”

“Oh,”

“I wanted money so I could go to Argentina and figure things out.” Sebastion stood up awkwardly, “I don’t like talking about it, let’s go back into the bar.” Hunter stood up and grabbed his shoulder.

“No.”

“What?” Sebastian turned around. 

“Just, just stand here a moment and process everything. Let me process everything. Please.” 

Sebastian took a step closer to Hunter and Hunter pulled him into a hug. He felt Sebastian biting at his shoulder. Hunter let his fingers curl through the other boys hair, held him closer when he started to cry. 

“Do you really want to take me home?” Hunter whispered, finally.

“I don’t think I have a home anymore.” Sebastian answered. Hunter hugged him tighter.

To Kurt 1:06 a.m.  
Thank you. For making me wait and learn it the right way.

From Kurt 8:32 a.m.  
You haven’t even figured out how much you don’t know yet.


	11. Knowing Nothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day after country music night at Scandals, Hunter calls Kurt and realizes Kurt might not know as much as he thinks he does.

Hunter woke up late, he had snoozed his alarm for the first time in his life. The Sebastian effect. He knew he had to look at the file. He had a bad feeling, a brick in his stomach. Kurt’s text did not help. When Hunter’s dad had sent him the files he had told him

  
“ _This is highly classified information, so please don’t use it for blackmail except to avoid jail time or death,”_

_“How highly classified?” Hunter had asked,_

_“Everyone who can access this file also knows the nuclear codes.”_

_“Oh. Thank you dad. For trusting me.”_

_“Make me proud.”_

The information Hunter had, only a few people knew. Hunter doubted even Sebastian knew what was in the file. It would probably be nothing, a list of classified missions.

Hunter called Kurt. 

“Oh, Hunter, hi.” Kurt answered, “sorry that text was cryptic, umm... I wasn’t having a great night -”

“I have Zack Terry’s CIA file”

“How did you get that? Is it online?”

“No! The CIA does not post classified information on public databases.” Hunter said, aghast, “My dad works at WHINSEC,”

“And WHINSEC is...?”

“WHINSEC is a m-“

“You know,” Kurt cut Hunter off with what Hunter knew would be some inane and unnecessary observation, “Sebastian also name drops random acronyms and French words, but with him its tolerable because he does it on purpose. You are a little surprised that I don’t know about some random acronym from the CIA, and that makes me feel stupid...Sorry, you were saying?

“WHINSEC is a m-”

“ - You don’t think you’ll miss him, and then you get busy and you don’t call and you’re supposed to hate him and suddenly it’s 2 am and it’s crack head hours in New York or his roommate calls and you miss him.”

“Yeah. Right. As I was saying, WHINSEC is a military training institute-“

“Oh, I ho-”

“One sentence.” Hunter shouted, “could you let me say one sentence.” 

“Rude.” Hunter rolled his eyes, “I was just going to say, I hope that doesn’t have anything to do with the SOA,”

Hunter blinked, “WHINSEC is the SOA.”

“I’m sorry?”

“They reopened the SOA under a different name because there were reports the institute was teaching torture. Lots of bad press.”

“Please say Sebastian doesn’t know.” Kurt sounded extremely nervous, but at least he was focused on their conversation.

“My dad’s WHINSEC’s director,”

“But Sebastian doesn’t know?”

“Of course Sebastian knows. The only way he wouldn’t is if he didn’t search for my family on the internet and I know he did.”

“Sebastian knows?” Kurt said, like he was double checking a death certificate.

“Yeah.” Hunter confirmed, getting nervous.

“Fuck - sorry.” Kurt didn’t swear ever, Hunter was very nervous. “This is Ok. I mean, it’s not, you are in mortal danger, um yeah so -“

“Kurt. Calm down. What do you mean, why am I in danger?”

“He is planning to kill you.”

“What?! Who?!”

“This is my fault. I should have told you everything. You’re going to die. And it will be my fault.”

“Kurt. Could you explain why you think I am going to die?”

“Sebastian has all this misplaced rage against the US military. He blames them for his family dying in Argentina. Last summer Sebastian tried to KILL Zack. We stopped him just in time. He thinks the people who killed his family were trained and controlled by the SOA.”

“Oh.” Hunter said, pinching his nose. How had he not put this together faster? He didn’t even need to open the file to know what it said.

“Obviously, Sebastian is crazy, right?”

“Not really. His family was involved in politics, and was murdered in Argentina in 2006. Sounds like the CIA.”

“Oh, well, I thought he was crazy. Sebastian told us he thought Zack Terry reported information to the CIA that got his parents killed. Apparently, there were like... trials going on in Argentina and someone hired this assassination squad -thi is according to Sebastian - Sebastian thought the CIA hired this assasination squad because Sebastian’s mom was going to testify. But we talked to Zack Terry and he said that Sebastian’s father had hired the assassination squad because his family was involved in the trials. He sent Sebastian emails and journal entries proving it. Sebastian’s dad was the killer”

“By ‘trials’ do you mean the Trials of the Junta,”

“Ummm... I dont know. Is that important?”

“The Trial of the Juntas were the most important human rights trials in Latin American history,”

“That sounds pretty important,”

“Yeah. Do you know _anything_ about Argentina or modern Argentine history?”

“I have memorized the music of Evita... Don’t cry for me Ar-“ God. Kurt started singing and Hunter cut him off fast.

“-So nothing. You know nothing. Fantastic.” Hunter wanted to pound his head into a wall. Kurt had all the details, but no context. “Tell me everything Sebastian told you without making any assumptions or adding your own thoughts. Your thoughts are valueless, because you know nothing.”

“If I hadn’t decided to talk to you, you would be a sitting duck, completely unaware that Sebastian probably wants to kill you. So the rudeness is uncalled for.”

“Sorry. Just please help me out.”

“Fine. But be nicer. Sebastian’s mom and dad were part of these wealthy Argentine families that broke the law in - I don’t know - maybe the 1980s. Zack Terry was a CIA agent hired to protect them. He became a close family friend. Sebastian’s parents fought all the time, and often Sebastian’s mom would take him and his little sister to Europe or on world tours during those fights. In 2006, Sebastian’s mom returned to Argentina with his little sister. Sebastian was in school so he stayed in Europe. Zack Terry stepped down from his post as the family’s body guard, he started doing like paper work for the CIA or something. Anyways, the family’s car was blown up. Sebastian’s whole family died. Zack Terry told us Sebastian’s dad told his family his wife was going to testify so they hired a death squad and the death squad went too far. “

“Do you remember Sebastian’s last name? It’s not Smythe,”

“I don’t remember his parent’s names. Won’t they be in the file?”

“Yeah,” Hunter stared at the file. It must’ve been the Trial of the Juntas. The CIA wouldn’t involve itself in normal civilian trials. He clicked the file, held his breath while it downloaded. “Shit.”

The Agosti Videla family. _That_ assassination. 


	12. What Assasination?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically the title.

“What assassination?” Kurt asked,

“Do you want the long or the very long explanation of the last fifty years of Argentine politics?” Hunter asked, still a bit annoyed at Kurt’s complete lack of knowledge.

“Is there a short explanation?”

“No... but I’ll do my best. In 1976, the CIA helped a military dictatorship, a junta, overthrow Argentina’s democratically elected Perón government.”

🎶“Don’t cry for me-“🎶

“- Yeah, that one. The leaders of that military dictatorship were trained at the SOA, which is one of the many reasons Sebastian might hate the US military. That dictatorship proceeded to murder 30,000 civilians, 20% of whom were students.”

“How does this involve Sebastian?”

“His grandparents led the military Junta. They are currently serving life terms in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity.”

“Oh. Well that’s good. I mean, not the crimes against humanity part but the jail part is... I mean..”

Hunter ignored Kurt’s floundering, “The dictatorship fell in 1983, but the leaders of the dictatorship were granted amnesty by the Senate of Argentina,”

“Why?” Kurt asked. Hunter rolled his eyes,

“Argentine politicians were afraid if they tried to put military leaders in jail, there would be another coup. In 2005, the Supreme Court of Argentina struck down laws protecting military members who had committed crimes against humanity.”

“So that was a really big deal?”

“Yes. It was the definition of a big deal.”

“The rudeness is creeping back into your tone, by the way.” Kurt snapped.

“Apologies,” Hunter replied sarcastically, “So it’s 2008, two of these military dictators are up for trial. Their children, who are married, are blown up in a car in Buenos Aires.”

“Sebastian’s parents.”

“Exactly. It was a super high profile assassination. The remains were burned in the fire so there was no physical evidence Maria and Peter Videla died, which fueled conspiracy theories. But the main question was ‘who killed them?’ A left wing terrorist might have killed them just because they were part of the Videla family, but that is unlikely. Another member of the military families might have killed them to stop them from testifying. That’s what Terry claims. Or...”

Hunter stared at his computer tabs for a moment, letting his sentence trail off. He usually deleted tabs as soon as he was done using them, but he had left the tab to his West Point Application open. He let it linger on his screen like years of military training lingered in his mind, always ready to be pulled to the forefront.

“Or it was the CIA.” Kurt finished.

“Or it was the CIA trying to suppress witnesses. And they were probably tipped off by Zack Terry.”

“Why would the CIA try to stop people from testifying?” Kurt asked, still so innocent.

With a sudden clarity, Hunter pulled up his West Point application and pressed delete. _Are you sure?_ His screen asked. Are you sure you want to throw away the future you have been working towards for the last seventeen years? Are you sure you want to delete your father’s respect? Erase summers of ROTC and semesters of military boarding school? Strike-out friendships built on this one shared goal? Trash your well-laid plans?

 **YES** he pressed. And it was gone.

Hunter switched tabs back to Terry’s file. “The CIA committed crimes against humanity. Not just in Argentina, but around the world. In the seventies, eighties, nineties, now. And everyone knows. Everyone involved in foreign-policy knows. But the proof is classified.” Hunter took a breath, letting Kurt’s mind catch up. It was a lot. A lot of information to take in. _Poor Kurt_. _Poor_ _everyone_ Hunter thought, almost bitterly. _Poor him_ , when was he going to tell his dad he chose a broken-hearted boy and a broken-hearted country over West Point? Years of military training were no match for a few months with Sebastian, singing songs in Glee club. If ‘follow your heart’ was the only thing Hunter learned at Dalton, it was enough to destroy his life and save his soul. “Whether the CIA killed Sebastian’s parents or a military family did, there is not a doubt in my mind the CIA murdered witnesses in order to keep information about human rights abuses secret.”

“So who do you think killed Sebastian’s parents, Peter Videla or Zack Terry? I still don’t believe it was Zack, he loves Sebastian so much.”

“I think the answers are in this file.”

Hunter shushed Kurt and started reading.


	13. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh

  
“So?” Kurt asked,

“Stop distracting me while I read.” Hunter answered, reading as carefully as possible. 

“..............................Ok, how long is this file?”

“Kurt!”

“Sorry, sorry,............................................................. So ....”

“Just give me a few more minutes.”


	14. Our View

Sebastian sat down on hard stone and let his feet dangle over the cliff. The gun sat beside him. He held his phone in his pocket. He needed to do this now. Now or never. When had he become so attached to Hunter? Maybe it was here. 

Sebastian remembered Hunter’s sarcastic smile when he said, " _See, we're such a good team already_." And then they turned and were hit with the most incredible view. This view. Like clockwork. 

Hunter could make everything work perfectly. His choreography was tight and smooth, like his life. He didn’t have the wildness Sebastian did, he wasn't impulsive. Hunter had a temper, but a predictable temper, one that flared when things that were supposed to work like clockwork didn't. Jesus. Sebastian needed to stop thinking about him or else he wouldn’t be able to do what he had to. To protect himself. To protect the world.

"Wow. From up here Ohio almost looks like not the suckiest place on earth." Sebastian replied. Hunter placed his hand on Sebastian’s shoulder, _thoughtless_. He looked like an all-American god. Those eyes. Jesus. "You can't do that _._ ” Sebastian had told him “You can't bring me to some pretty view and look at me with those eyes and put your hand on my arm and then say you're straight and I have no chance with you. You can't." Hunter let go and Sebastian felt his arm burn where Hunter had touched him. 

Hunter sat down with his legs hanging over a thousand foot drop. Sebastian didn’t spend much time hanging out around cliffs, but he felt like getting near the edge was a bad idea. He bit his lip, watching Hunter swing his legs out over certain death. Sebastian sat beside him, not looking down, instead looking at Hunter’s hands, pressed against the stone. Everything would be fine, everything was going to be ok because Hunter had it all under control. Hunter could erase his fears like miswritten physics equations. He could write a poem in the space left about beauty and stillness and something perfect but unattainable. 

Then Hunter pulled out his stupid cat, because _of course he did_. Sebastian patted its head. "Ok," Hunter said. But it didn’t matter because Sebastian was so far gone. Even then. 

Was that how she felt? Was that why she didn’t shoot?


	15. Deadly Knowledge

“So.....” Kurt started,

“Wow,” Hunter said, closing the document,

“Who killed Sebastian’s family?”

“My dad.”

“What?” Kurt shouted, dropping his phone. Hunter listened to it clatter to the ground. Everything made sense. He hung up on Kurt and called his father. Kurt stared at the dead line. “Hunter? Hunter!”

Mr. Clarington picked up, “Hey, s-“

“That file you sent me. Do you know what it says?” Hunter asked, voice urgent and upset.

“No. Why?” His father replied, confused, “I hope you didn’t show it to anyone.”

“It’s Zack Terry’s file. Ring a bell?”

“Hunter, what are you on about?”

Hunter felt himself loose it a little bit, “Argentina? 1983? Maria and Peter Videla?”

“Oh! Zack Terry.” Silence for a moment as Hunter’s father remembered the details of the case, “Wait. The kid. Sebastian. Did you find Sebastian Videla?”

“No. My roommate is unrelated to the mission.” Hunter lied, thinking, in for a penny... “Is there still a hit out on Sebastian Videla?”

“You know I can’t tell you that.” 

“Why did you kill her?” Hunter asked against his own will.

“Who?” 

Hunter took a deep brief. “Maria Videla.”

“Oh. She had evi-“

“-But she was innocent.” Hunter interrupted his father, like he was raised badly, “More then innocent. She was a witness.”

“Yeah.” Mr. Clarington agreed, “a witness to crimes the U.S. committed.” 

“I’m not going to West Point.”

“What? Whoa. Hunt, kiddo. You can’t get mad about one th-“ 

Hunter hung up and switched lines,

“Kurt?”

“Hunter, what do you mean your father killed Sebastian’s mom?”

“The SOA isn’t just a military training institute. It was created to organize assassination teams. Think about it. It’s actually brilliant.” 

“I’m sure it is.” Kurt answered sarcastically, too distracted by the immorality of murder to praise the _system of organizing assassinations._

Hunter lacked his qualms, “The only tie anyone in an assassination team has to the United States is one or two classes at a military institute. For the last fifty years, graduates of the SOA have been involved in basically every right-wing coup and assassination in Latin America. Do you understand? The SOA is not just a military institute, it is how the US organizes assassinations across the world.”

“And your dad is in charge.” Kurt said, sounding almost numb. Preoccupied. He was trying to connect ideas he had barely been introduced to, “So Sebastian’s family was assassinated....

“Not his family, his mom.”

“Hunter, honey, can you start at the beginning. Please.”

“1951,” 

“Oh, so we are going back to the _beginning_ beginning.”

“Yes,” Hunter said, rolling his eyes,

“Don’t look at me like I’m stupid.”

“I’m not looking at you.”

“I can hear your expression.” Kurt told him, “It is insulting.”

Hunter rolled his eyes again, “In 1951 Juan Perón was reelected,”

“Evita!” Kurt threw out his single piece of pre-existing knowledge,

“Evita died.” Hunter took too much joy in informing Kurt of this, “Juan might have cut her brain in half because she was too bossy, and they did that to uppity women in the 1950s. But that is just a theory. Anyways. Perón’s popularity declined because he was corrupt and suppressed free press and had the not-enviable task of pandering to Argentine populists without upsetting the United States by actually making life better for the Argentine people. The big Argentine military families - the Videlas, Agostis, Lambruschinis, Violas - meet with the United States government and then overthrow Perón.”

“So the US helped overthrow Argentina’s democracy.” Kurt knew at some point the US helped overthrow Argentina’s government. 

“Umm. Maybe. It is unclear.” Hunter scrolled idly though the file, “I don’t really have that file. I just have details on Zack Terry’s mission and the background of his mission,”

“How does any of this connect to Sebastian or his parents.” Kurt did some mental math, “They wouldn’t have even been alive in the 1950s.”

“Because, that meeting was the start of Operation Condor.”

“And what was Operation Condor?” Kurt asked, losing track of the vocab,

“It was a network of genocidal dictators across Latin America who murdered leftists and were propped up by the CIA.”

“Obviously.” Kurt said, then, “I still don’t-“

“Patience.” Hunter cut him off, “The Agostis feared the US would turn on them, so they kept evidence of everything that the CIA was doing. In the 1970s the military dictatorship held elections, Perón came back from exile and was elected. In 1976 he was overthrown in another military coup.” 

“This guy was elected president and then overthrown by the military multiple times?” Kurt commented, “What did he do to them?”

Hunter ignored him, “The 1976 military coup was different from any coup in the history of Argentina. Military teams trained at the SO; fifty million dollars of funding a year from the United States; obvious CIA support.” 

“So the first coup, the military families met with the CIA. Now they are getting actual military support from the United States.”

“Yeah, actually.” Hunter said, a bit condescending, “Exactly. The US wanted to murder every leftist in Argentina. They set up over 200 concentration camps and systematically murdered 30,000 people associated with leftism.” Hunter ran through these facts without any emotional response. He was used to the idea America murdered people. Kurt was struggling to keep up as Hunter ran through the rest of the story, “This whole time, the Agostis are keeping track of everything. I mean, everything: cables where the CIA organized the assassinations of Salvador Allende, Orlando Letelier, Juan José Torres. Financial records proving the CIA was paying Roberto Viola and giving him orders.”

“Hunter, Hunter, Slow down.”

Hunter took a breath, realizing, as he spoke, the significance of what he had found, “Ok. Take Orlando Letelier. Are you familiar?”

“Why would I know anything about Orlando L...leter...ly?”

“Letelier. He was a Chilean politician involved in a resistance movement against the U.S. supported Chilean dictator, Pinochet. His car was blown up in Washington D.C. in 1976. Obviously the CIA was involved.”

“Why is that obvious?”

“Because a foreign politician’s car was BLOWN UP in WASHINGTON DC.” Hunter said, aghast, “Washington D.C. as in the US capital. “

“I know what the US capital is, thank you Hunter.”

“Sorry. It seemed unclear. So everyone knows the CIA committed this assassination. But Chile can’t force any Americans to appear and stand trial until they have actual proof. The Agostis had actual proof.” Hunter let that statement hang in the air for a moment, “Kurt, this isn’t about the dirty war in Argentina, this is about Operation Condor. If the Argentine government gets this information, every nation in Latin America is going to have enough evidence of war crimes to subpoena everyone involved in the CIA between 1970 and 1990.” 

“That’s a big deal.” Kurt agreed. But he didn’t understand, not like Hunter did. Did Sebastian understand? Hunter wondered. A rich kid who had been lied to. He belonged in the United States. 

“It gets bigger.” Hunter said, “Operation Condor never ended. The CIA is still destroying liberal Latin American democracies, and they are using the same tactics, the same military bases, the same codewords.” 

“Oh. But that’s good then. This information could protect Latin American democracies from...”

“- from US interference.”

Kurt slowly connected the dots, “Which the US doesn’t want, because we like interfering.”

“Exactly.” Hunter sounded surprised,

“Ok, I know this is difficult for you, but if you could try even less condensation in your tone-“

“Condensation? I don’t think you’re using that word right.”

“I could hang up on you,”

Hunter looked down at his phone, two text notifications popped up. Sebastian. “Sebastian just texted me.”

“Finish the-“ For all his talk about condensation, Kurt wanted to know how the story ends. “the Videlas have a box of evidence the CIA doesn’t want them to have, who kills Maria Videla?” 

“Ok. Sebastian’s mom was seven when the 1976 military dictatorship started, but her sister was older. Sebastian’s aunt, Annette Agosti, snuck out at night to attend leftist meetings. She quietly collected evidence of human rights abuses, and then, at some point found the chest of evidence her dad had on the CIA. It went missing, the CIA found out. They were very upset-” 

“- The CIA or the Agostis? -“

“Sure. Both.” Hunter was thinking about Sebastian’s texts, rushing through details, “In 1982, Sebastian’s aunt ran away with her leftist girlfriend. “

“Ooh. Lesbians.”

“The CIA murdered both of them.”

“Of course they did.”

“But all the CIA found on them was copies and descriptions of evidence. They couldn’t find the actual evidence.”

“She left it with her little sister?!” Kurt asked, sounding genuinely concerned, “Oh no.” 

“Like you, it takes the CIA all of five seconds to put that together. But they had bigger problems. In 1983 the dictatorship fell, Argentina held elections, and half of the country wanted to murder the former dictators that the CIA supported. So the CIA questions Sebastian’s mom, they get no information, and drop the case in favor of setting up security for the families of the dictators.” 

“Oh! Oh! Oh! Zack Terry was one of the CIA guys who was supposed to protect Sebastian’s mom’s family.” Kurt said, surprising himself.

“Actually yes. Maria Agosti was eighteen when Zack Terry was sent down from Foggy Bottom. 23, fresh out of the academy. He had two jobs, protect the family, and find the evidence.”

“Did he?”

“No. But he did have a summer fling with Sebastian’s mom and get himself pulled from the case.”

“Ugh. Men.” 

Hunter ignored Kurt’s knowing interjection, “Sebastian’s mom ended up marrying Peter Videla, the boy her sister was supposed to marry. She went on to lead the perfect upper-class Argentine life. But I think she kept Zack’s number. Met him in Europe when her marriage was going badly.”

“Is Sebastian is Zack’s son?” 

“I mean the file doesn’t say anything about this. But yeah. He has to be for what happened in 2006 to make sense.” 

“What happened in 2006?”

“The Supreme Court of Argentina rules all of the laws protecting the military families from prosecution. Suddenly, the CIA really needs that evidence because it could come out in court. Zack Terry is much higher in the CIA, he gets himself reassigned to the case. The CIA thought his ‘close personal relationship’ with the family could aid the mission. Sebastian is ten and going to school in France. His mother and sister are living in Paris so he can visit them on the weekends. Zack Terry learns Sebastian’s mom is planing to return to Argentina to testify. He reports her to the CIA and recommends everyone in the family is assassinated, except for Sebastian.”

“Because Sebastian is his son.”

“That would make sense.” 

“Ss Zack killed her.”

“This is where it gets interesting. Zack changed his mind. He tells the SOA and my father, who was organizing the assasination, she was just going to Argentina for a social visit. He begs they spare her.”

“So the assassination was called off?” Kurt asked hopefully,

“This is the CIA, not Dillards. You can’t return an assassination if you realize you don’t want it. My dad decided to assassinate Maria and Sebastian based on Zack’s intel and corroborating evidence from Peter Videla that Maria was going to testify. They thought Maria might have left the evidence with Sebastian so they ordered his murder but spared Peter Videla and the daughter because he cooperated.”

“But Sebastian is alive?”

“No, he’s a ghost. Yes. But according to the file he basically disappeared. Zack adopted him and then did an incredibly good job hiding him from the CIA.”

Kurt let all of the information sink in. He had so many questions. “Does Sebastian know Zack is his dad?” 

“I mean... he must suspect.” 

“And all of this was to find evidence they ne—“ Never found. All this blood for a chest of evidence they never found. Kurt blinked. Oh.

“Kurt?”

“There is a chest Sebastian keeps under his bed that you should pro-”

“Wha-“ Hunter’s eyes flashed to Sebastian’s bed and his voice dropped to a furious whisper, “Is Sebastian keeping stolen CIA documents in our shared dorm room?”

“To be fair-“ Hunter hung up with a click, “- you are reading stolen CIA documents right now. Ok Goodbye. Good luck.”

“Who was that?” Rachel asked from her room. 

“I honestly don’t know how much I can tell you without getting murdered by the CIA,” 

“Sounds fun,” she said, walking into the kitchen and making herself a sandwich.

“Yeah.”


	16. Revelation

Hunter fell to his knees, frantically digging through the storage under Sebastian’s bed. His phone rang, Kurt calling him back. He ignored it as he pulled a chest from the boxes. It looked too small to hold a nation’s nightmares. _What do you know? Sebastian, what do you know?_ He thought. _What did they tell you? Are you angry at her, or do you understand what she was trying to do? Do you believe in her mission, or are you just trying to hang on to the last pieces of a family destroyed?_ Hunter felt along the chest, letting his nails scrape the old wood. It was locked. He felt along Sebastian’s bedframe until he found keys. He had spotted them weeks before, while hanging out on Sebastian’s bed, doing homework with him. Even as the key fell into place, Hunter was thinking it couldn’t possibly work. Who guards something this important, this badly? He opened the chest. Inside there was a lockbox for a gun. It was unlocked and empty. Hunter put it beside himself, trying not to think to much about where the missing gun could be. There were family photos, and older photos, taken with a Polaroid. Hunter pushed these aside, then, hit with a sudden realization, pulled them back out to study closer. 

Most pf the polaroids featured a young women. Maria Agosti. And a younger Zack Terry. They were sitting on a small bed reading together; goofing off with friends in a river, pushing eachother off a rock; Listening to folk music in a crowded bar; kissing on a mountaintop. A shiver ran down Hunter’s spine to his hands and the photos fell out of his shaking fingers. A coincidence. _It’s a coincidence_ , he told himself, picking up the photos. What they had was real. It was all real. Sebastian wasnt the type to play deadly mind games. But actually, he was. The type to get so obsessed with one thing, he would go to extreme and dangerous lengths. Revenge. _What they had was real._

Maria had written on the back of the photos. In Spanish. Hunter pulled out his phone and translated the back of a photo of her and Zack Terry lying on a riverbank. 

_“_ He is the worst type because he knows exactly what they do and he wants to be part of it. Lead. He cannot plea ignorance when the bloodshed ends and the trials start. And yet here I am, lying with him on a river bank in Córdoba. He wants to play fuck, marry, kill. Zack Terry, Peter Videla, Both. Fuck, marry, kill. What a stupid, childish game.”

So teenage Maria was even more intensely angsty then her son. Noted. Hunter pulled out the remaining files in the chest. Classified documents organized by year and branch of the US government: CIA, FBI, State Department, White House, Etc. It was all here, in their dorm room. Had been the whole time. Fuck. 

Hunter pulled out his phone and checked his texts. 

_Hey, meet me at the mountain top... it's kind of "our spot" now ;)_

Well now he knew where the gun was. Oh, Sebastian. Kurt called him again and he picked up. “Hey, Sebastian asked Me to meet,”

“Do not go Hunter, he is planning to kill you.”

Hunter glanced at the chest, “Ok, I didn't find anything in the chest so I’m just gonna think for a while.”

Kurt did not sound convinced by his lies, “Hunter, I am serious, do not -“

“Kurt, don’t worry about me.” Click. Hunter hung up. 

He pulled out a photo of Zack Terry and Maria kissing on a mountain top. 

“I knew when he kissed me, I should shoot him. I had a gun in my bag, for self-defense. Annette’s voice was in my head, telling me how this would end. One of us dead. Me, if I did not take my chance now. But it was the part of me that is Annette which had me kissing the enemy. Agosti girls, falling in love across the invisible line of this war that seems to never end. So the gun stayed in my bag, and my hands cupped his face, and the rest cannot be rewritten.”

_Hey, meet me on the mountain top._ Hunter smiled, tears tickling is eyelashes. He let them fall. _Oh, Sebastian, when I told you not to fall in love with me, I didn’t know that tragic love is written into your DNA._ He cried for Sebastian, for Maria Agosti, Zack and Peter, for Argentina. He cried for himself, because he might die, so he was scared. His rib cage fit wrong against his chest, like his bones were nervously twisting out of place.

  
Hey, meet me at the mountain top... it's kind of "our spot" now ;)

Be there in 15 min. 

  
It was a long fucking hike up that mountain. Hunter had forgotten about that. He sprinted up, eager to learn his fate. He turned the final corner, and there was Sebastian, sitting a few cautionary feet from the edge and clutching his backpack. He glanced at Hunter and back at the overlook. Hunter sat down at the edge, legs hanging down, unafraid. The world was not going to crumble underneath him. Sebastian inched forward until he was sitting beside Hunter, legs pressed together over the impossibly far drop. 

“I know,” Hunter said, “About your mom, the evidence, I know about everything.”

Sebastian pulled out his gun before Hunter finished his sentence. He held it to Hunter’s head, “We are on opposite sides of a war, Hunter. And nobody else knows the war never ended, but it didn't. I will not make my mother’s mistake.” Sebastian’s voice sounded sure, but he hadn’t pulled the trigger yet. He stared into Hunter’s eyes looking... looking for something he thought he had found. And Hunter could end this now. Tell Sebastian he wasn’t going to West Point. But he didn’t want to. If Sebastian was looking for assurances now, he would not get them from Hunter. As the seconds ticked by, Hunter found himself unafraid. It was real, what they had. He knew this boy. Sebastian didn’t need Hunter’s assurances. After a few moments Hunter decided he could use a bit of prompting. 

“I knew when he kissed me, I should shoot him,” Hunter quoted. Sebastian stared into his eyes, they were so close. The gun was pressing against his head, hard metal against soft hair. Hunter leaned forward and kissed Sebastian. Soft lips under his own that slowly reacted, opening and sucking. Hunter swore to god the barrier between where he ended and Sebastian started had been permanently destroyed. He could hear the other boy’s thoughts ringing in his ears as they kissed. _Is this how she felt? Is this how she felt?_ The gun left Hunter’s head, and Sebastian cupped his face, rocking into Hunter’s chest. Suddenly, Hunter was aware they were making out on the edge of a literal cliff. And he had a fiancé. Fuck. He pulled away.

They stared at each other for a moment. Sebastian took Hunter’s hand in his own. He wrapped Hunter’s fingers around the gun and held it to his own head. Hunter went still. “I made my mom’s mistake, will you make your father’s?”

Hunter wrenched his hand and the gun away from Sebastian. He stood up and threw it off the cliff as hard as he could. Sebastian watched it fall and glanced up at Hunter. 

“We are not our parents.” Hunter said, decisively. He offered Sebastian his hand. “We are something new and different and better.” Sebastian took his hand and stood up. He smiled at Hunter brilliantly. Hunter knew he shouldn’t, but he kissed Sebastian again just to reward him for that smile. “Now, I believe you have some evidence that belongs in the Argentine embassy,”

Sebastian leaned forward so his mouth was pressed to Hunter’s shoulder. “Oh, talk dirty to me,” 

It was a stupid sex joke. Hunter had to physically stop himself from kissing Sebastian again. This was the problem with crossing lines, you can’t take a step back when you walk off a cliff.

  
Slowly, they made their way down the mountain together. “It was kind of irresponsible, throwing that gun off of a mountain.” Sebastian pointed out, “Anyone could pick that up... And usually you’re so anal about following procedures.”

“Language. And -” 

“- sorry, Mrs. Frizzle, am I corrupting the children? -”

“ - And you just held a loaded gun to my head so maybe not the time for comments on gun safety.” Hunter replied, but then he glanced in the direction he threw the gun and added, “I really hope no trails go over there.”

“You know it’s gonna be some random eight-year-old who finds it.” 

“Ever the optimist.”

They were silent for a moment, “So what now?” Sebastian asked. Hunter stopped, and Sebastian turned to look at him.

“I have a fi-“

“- Fiancé, I know, E-VRY-BO-DY knows.”

“And we have sectionals in two weeks.” Hunter turned away from him and kept hiking,

“So that’s it?” Sebastian asked, still. When Hunter didn’t answer he ran to catch up, like a little kid. How did Hunter make him feel this way: a step behind in a game they weren’t playing?

Finally Hunter said, “I’m not going to West Point. I pulled my application.”

Sebastian stopped. Grabbed Hunter’s shoulder so he also stopped. “Are you crazy? Why didn't you tell me that when I was holding a gun to your head?”

Hunter looked at his shoes, at Sebastian’s lips. He had this problem because everything was super serious right now, and he knew he should be going through a checklist with Sebastian: What do you know? Do you know Terry is your father? How did you get that gun? Do you have any other weapons? Did you digitize the evidence? Who knows about the evidence? Are you actually the stupidest human on earth or is there a legitimate reason you kept the most important documents on earth in a wooden chest under your bed? Have you talked to a phycologist? Are you in love with me? There was a conversation they really should be having that was serious and focused, but Hunter kept thinking about Sebastian’s lips. And his mouth. And those thoughts very quickly went to unmentionable acts. It was just the adrenaline, still crashing through his veins. Finally he got his thoughts straight, “I wanted you to... to decide if you are the type of person who shoots the enemy.” Hunter explained, and then “I really like you, Sebastian. And I wanted to know... I wasn't sure I could keep liking you not knowing what you would have done if I wasn’t me. I didn’t want to live with any doubt in my mind about who you are.”

Sebastian processed his words slowly, “What does that mean?”

Hunter shrugged, looked away, “It means I really like you.”

“What do you mean, ‘ _like_ ’”

Hunter laughed and met his eyes, “I know this is a difficult concept for you, but some people build relationships with others based on positive feelings of mutual respect and happiness instead of on negative emotions such as hate and extreme competitiveness.” He was avoiding the question, and Sebastian was unamused, 

“Did you _like_ kissing me?”

Sweat shined on Sebastian’s face and Hunter wanted to lick it off. He let a finger slide over Sebastians cheek, instead, “What do you think?” 


	17. Chapter 17

**I know this is late, so I’m releasing now and Ill edit it tomorrow. Might’ve fucked up the fiancé’s name. Pretty tired.**

Hunter was in jail. Jail. Awaiting trial. He was in jail. So much had happened in the last three weeks.It all blurred together in his mind as he lied in his small cot, staring at the concrete ceiling. He was in fucking jail. How did this happen?

When Sebastian and Hunter got down from the mountain, Hunter had gotten his brain together. He told Sebastian to digitize all of the files. They sent them to the Argentine embassy, it would take a few months for the government to press new charges. Hunter told Sebastian to get therapy, but Sebastian said he didn’t want to talk about it. He asked Sebastian questions about his parents, but Sebastian didn’t want to talk about them. He wanted to talk to Zack Terry, but Sebastian didn’t want to let him.

They refocused on school and on show choir. Sebastian agreed to Hunter’s drug plan on the way down from the mountain, but he changed his mind so they fought about that constantly. They fought about their relationship. They fought about boundaries. They fought about Sebastian’s bad anonymous sex habit. They fought about Argentina. The arguments were constant and exhausting.

Remembering the plan Sebastian had suggested the day they met, Hunter stole the New Direction’s trophy. Sebastian walked into their room after a dorm party with the lacrosse team, a little drunk. His hair was fucked up so he had probably had sex. Whatever. When he saw the trophy, he grinned.

“You didn’t,”

Hunter said nothing. Just shared an evil smile with Sebastian before tucking it under his bed. They needed to win this competition. Hunter was pretty sure he couldn’t mary Maryann and he wanted his dad to be in a good mood when he told him.

“What’s the plan, Captain?” Sebastian asked, leaning a little too close to be innocent. The air in the room shifted as Hunter turned around. He looked at Sebastian with dilated eyes. Sebastian led Hunter’s hand to the bulge in his pants and Hunter squeezed until Sebastian was grimacing and rutting. “What’s the plan, Captain?”

Hunter could imagine fucking Sebastian senseless every night. Explaining the final details of their next strategy while orgasming. He could imagine ruining Sebastian’s pristine hair, leaving deep marks on his collarbone, making him beg for real and not as a joke.

Hunter let go of Sebastian’s crotch. “Send them a video, lure Blaine into this school, convince him to stay.”

“Wasn’t that the idea I had months ago?”

Hunter smiled wryly “It took some time to implement. There were some distractions, if you will recall.”

They stood staring at each other for a moment. Sebastian broke the silence, “Should I go to the bathroom to jerk off, or do you want to watch?” Hunter didn’t say anything so Sebastian started stroking himself.

“Who are you when you aren’t too terrified of who you are to be yourself?”

Sebastian dropped his dick, blinked twice, then looked down, “I think you just killed it.”

“Go take a cold shower.”

That night Hunter felt Sebastian sit on the side of his bed, framed by darkness. Slowly he crawled under the covers. Right next to Hunter. He felt clammy. He really had taken a cold shower.

Sebastian leaned into Hunter, “‘Mm cold.”

Hunter didn’t say anything, but he clung to Sebastian, letting his hands explore the other boy’s body without expectation.

‘Mm cold

Night after night Sebastian came back, no matter how badly they had fought in the daytime.

‘Mm cold

Hunter swore they shared dreams as well as bedding, his sleeping mind fulll with images of gaunt boys swimming in the Rhine and the taste of Parisian pastries.

‘Mm cold

He could smell charcoal too, feel a hand pull him out of the street as cars zipped by with no heed of traffic law.

‘Mm cold

He could feel the burning sun and see his sister’s smile, feel his own confusion as two languages rushed over him at once, hear the shouts of little boys playing fútbol in an alley; he could taste the garrapiñadas, and a smile slid onto his face as the sweetness hit his lips. Hunter woke up. He felt Sebastian beside him, but for a moment all he could see was a six year old boy, begging his mom for street food. Did you play soccer in the streets with the neighborhood boys? Did you give your sister piggy backs? Did you have a favorite food, a favorite place? Did you cry when you left for Europe? Did you impress all the French kids with your Spanish? Did you struggle to learn a third language? Did you have to be the best at everything there, like you do here? When she died, did you understand? Did they repeat it in all three languages, trying to explain the unexplainable?

Your mother is dead. She died in an explosion in Buenos Aires. Do you understand?Your mother was murdered last week. Lo entiendes? Tu madre está muerta. Murió en una explosión, en Buenos Aires. Lo entiendes? Tu madre fue asesinada la semana pasada. Comprenez vous? ta mère est morte. elle est morte dans une explosion à Buenos Aires. Comprenez vous? Votre mère a été assassinée la semaine dernière. Do you understand? Your mother is dead. She died in an explosion in Buenos Aires. Do you understand? Your mother was murdered last week. Comprenez vous? Lo entiendes? Do you understand?

Sebastian woke up crying. He wiped his tear stained face on Hunter’s shirt.

“Sorry,”

“You’re ok,” Hunter whispered, “You’re ok, you’re ok, you’re ok, you’re ok, you’re ok, you’re ok, you’re ok...”

“Where were you?” Hunter asked, glaring at Sebastian, who was pulling himself through their window at 2 am.

“Having fun. You should try it sometime.”

Hunter was more offended then he should be. He couldn’t sleep without Sebastian anymore. Hunter pulled out a packet of rice he kept in his snack drawer.

“Why do you have rice in your snack drawer?” Sebastian asked,

“Because it’s a snack.”

“You eat uncooked rice as a snack.”

“Its whole grain, I make it in the microwave.”

“You know they make whole grain granola bars, right?”

Hunter ignored him and poured the rice in front of Sebastian. He nodded at the floor.

“You broke the rules. Kneel.”

Sebastian grinned, “Kinky.”

“They did this at my military boarding school after the state banned corporal punishment.”

“Spankings and kneeling, I wanna go to military school.” The glint in Sebastian’s eye was dangerous.

Hunter pushed him down until he was kneeling on the rice, “Sebastian, this is a punishment,”

Even through jeans, the sharp grains bit at Sebastian’s knees painfully. He was kind of into it. “How long?”

“Until you’ve learned your lesson,”

Sebastian looked at the bulge in Hunters slacks, directly in front of him. He licked it, “How about until you’ve cum?” Hunter’s eyes widened as Sebastian really went at sucking him off through his pants. Hunter actually had no fucking idea what to do. This had never happened at military school. Obviously. His hand pushed Sebastian’s face into his crotch.

Kneeling on rice. Why had he thought this was a good idea? Sebastian reached up to undo his fly but Hunter stopped him.

“You’re supposed to,” Hunter panted, this was stupid stupid stupid. He couldn’t say no, “You need to keep you’re hands behind your back.” Hunter undid his own fly and pulled his dick out. Sebastian sucked on the tip. Rolling his tongue over it like a fucking pro. Now that his hands were behind his back, his full weight pushed him into the rice. Sebastian was teasing Hunter, pulling back flicking his tongue. Driving Hunter crazy. Tempting him, finally Hunter grabbed Sebastian’s hair and shoved his dick down the other boy’s throat. Hunter considered apologizing, but didn’t. Sebastian controlled his gag reflex - like a fucking pro. He swallowed Hunter down, lips wide, eyes blown. Hunter came and watched Sebastian swallow. He pulled himself out and zipped up his pants.

Sebastian started to get up, but Hunter stopped him, “I said until you learned your lesson.” For a moment Hunter thought Sebastian might protest, but he returned to his kneeling position. He was panting, eyes wide, pants tented, he was hard. Hunter watched him kneel until his own dick began to harden again. If he didn’t think he could cum again and leave this situation with his dignity intact.

“Ok, that’s enough.” Sebastian picked himself up, and immediately started jerking off. Hunter noticed Sebastian’s jeans turning red. He watched Sebastian’s back arc as he came. Hunter tugged Sebastian’s jeans downward. “Sorry, I didn’t know it would make you bleed.” Sebastian wasn’t talking. And all Sebastian does is talk, so that worried Hunter. He kneeled to pull Sebastian’s jeans all the way down. He traced his fingers over a splattering of little cuts. Sebastian watched him intently. He stepped out of his jeans, even closer to Hunter.

“You need anti-septic and bandaids.” Hunter muttered, mostly to himself, as he stood up. Face to face with Sebastian, Sebastian grabbed his face and kissed him. Hunter pushed him back, “Sebastian,” Sebastian ran his finger over Hunter’s lip, “Sebastian,” Sebastian surged forward to kiss him again, but Hunter backed off, “Sebastian. Stop.”

Hunter went to the bathroom to grab bandaids and anti-septic. Blues clues. Perfect. Sebastian sat on the be as Hunter carefully patched him back together.

Finally, Sebastian broke his silence, “I’ve never wanted anything in the world as much as I want you.”

Hunter sighed, “How long does that last once we’re together Sebastian? Weeks? Days? Hours? I know your dating history. And relationships aren’t about sex, not to me.”

“I’m sleeping in your bed.”

“OK.”

Hunter picked himself up and left the room to call Maryann. His fucking fiancé.

“What’s the problem, baby?”

“I think we need to take a break.”

There was a pause, “What does that mean?”

“I just, I just...” Hunter heard his voice break and he hated himself.

“Hey, calm down.” Maryann told him, “Are you serious?” And then she added,“I love you.”

Hunter rocked back and forth, “I know, I know, I just need some... I need to figure out how I feel and...”

“Hey, call me back in the morning. “

Hunter checked the time. She probably just thought this was late night nerves. Maybe it was, “Sorry.”

“Yeah, just call me back in the morning.”

When Hunter returned to the room, Sebastian looked asleep but he spoke, “Did you break up with your fiancé?”

“Yes, no, I don’t know “

Sebastian rolled over and got up, he took a step towards his own bed.

Hunter stepped in front of him, “Stay.”

“Why?”

“I’m cold. Without you.”

Sebastian stayed.


End file.
